4 Essential Building Blocks For Marriage Series

EXTREME HOME MAKEOVER HPC EDITION

4 Essential Building Blocks for Marriage

Genesis 2:18-25

Marriage matters to God. And because it does, we must make sure we’re doing marriage His way.

INTRODUCTION

Without a doubt, marriage and the family unit appears to be in trouble. Some would even suggest that it is a broken down, rudderless ship heading for the rocks.

You would have had to be in a coma to not see the changes that have taken place in the last fifty years.

To illustrate just how marriage is defined by our culture, when I Googled marriage in Canada, I was immediately bombarded by sites dealing with gay marriage.

In fifty years, the home and family have undergone changes of earthquake proportions.

Over time, the share of married-couple families has decreased

The number of families in Canada—married couples, common-law couples and lone-parent families—more than doubled between 1961 and 2011, from 4.1 million families in 1961 to 9.4 million families in 2011.

In 1961, married couples accounted for 91.6% of census families (Figure 1). By 2011, this proportion had declined to 67.0%. This decrease was mostly a result of the growth of common-law couples.

The share of lone-parent families has increased

In 2011, lone-parent families represented 16.3% of all census families. This was almost double the share of 8.4% in 1961 when relatively more childbearing took place within marriage and divorce rates were lower

In 1961, the majority of lone parents (61.5%) were widowed; a small proportion (2.7%) reported never having been married and the remaining 35.8% were divorced or separated. Over time, the proportion of widowed lone parents declined steadily, accompanied by an increase in the prevalence of never-married or divorced lone parents. By 2011, the most common legal marital status for lone parents was divorced or separated (50.8%), followed by a more than ten-fold increase for those who were never married (31.5%), while 17.7% of all lone parents were widowed.

Families and households have become smaller

Canadian families have become smaller over time. This occurred partly because of a decline in the total fertility rate after the baby boom and the fact that lone-parent families increased in recent decades. The average number of children per family decreased from 2.7 in 1961 to 1.9 in 2011. During the same period, the average number of people per family declined from 3.9 in 1961 to 2.9 in 2011.

One point that this government survey does not address is the impact that abortion has had on the family in the last fifty years. Since abortion was legalized in Canada in 1970, approximately two even three generations of children have been destroyed. Even immigration has not helped to stem the tide.

While family size declined over the period, the number of households increased. In each 5-year period between 1961 and 2011, the number of private households grew faster than the population, particularly between 1966 and 1981

Households have also become smaller in recent decades. This has been due largely to increased shares of one- and two-person households and to decreases in the proportion of large households comprised of five or more people. The 1981 Census marked the first time that one-person households surpassed households of five or more people

In 2011, households consisting of one person accounted for 27.6% of all households; about a three-fold increase from 9.3% in 1961. During the same period, the share of large households comprised of five people or more decreased from 32.3% in 1961 to 8.4% in 2011.

Chuck Swindoll paints a picture for us of how marriage and the family has changed over the last 50 years.

Imagine for a few moments that you are a modern Rip Van Winkle. You’re enjoying a relatively normal life in the 1960’s. with a mate at your side and children under ten living at home. Life is good, yet a subtle uneasiness occasionally disturbs your peace.

After the turmoil of the Kennedy assassination, Washington has returned to its usual bickering with Lyndon Johnson as the 36th president of the United States. All’s quiet in Cuba and the Soviet Union for the moment, but the troublesome squirmish in Southeast Asia seems to be escalating.

You’re also concerned because your children are now listening to the Beach Boys after a man known simply as Elvis introduced a different kind of music to popular audiences. His swiveling hips and suggestive antics have robbed television of its earlier innocence, but you patiently endure the Smothers brothers and are learning to tolerate the edgy, off color humor on Laugh-in. After all, there is always Lawrence Welk on Saturday night and Bonanza every Sunday evening after church.

Pot is where you grow herbs, a mouse is a pesky rodent, coke is a soft drink, and gay means you are happy. Abortion, incest, homosexuality, and condoms are words you would never hear in public let alone the pulpit.