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A study by the Center for Disease Control sheds light on cohabitation by couples. According to the CDC study, 50% of people who live together without marrying break up within five years. Only 20% of married people separate or divorce after five years. After 10 years, 62% of people who cohabit have broken up; while after 10 years, only 33% of married people break up. Clearly living together without a marriage covenant does not produce lasting relationships. Besides, who can calculate the heartache these fractured affairs have on children? God gave us the secret for lasting and satisfying relationships when He placed people on earth. After creating Adam, God also created Eve and united the two of them into one. The Bible then says, “This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” Marriage is not just a human social idea that we stumbled upon. It is rooted in the way God created us. It is the basic building block of human society. Jesus later made clear that God had not changed his mind about marriage. He said, “God made them male and female; since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.” Of course, we know that divorce is at times a sad reality; but that should not keep us from striving for God’s ideal.
