I heard something alarming today, Mexico is about to vote on whether or not they should make marriages temporary. The rate of divorce in Mexico is 50% (45-50% for the US) and they are spending a lot of money on legal fees for divorces, so a Mexican legislator has proposed that they make 2 year marriages. If they couple decides they no long want to be married after the two-year term they can walk away, but if they want to stay married they must renew their contract. You will find the article here: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/03/world/americas/mexico-2-year-marriages/

I, of course, think this is absurd! Why even bother getting married if you can just walk away after two years. At least with divorce you have to put forth effort to get divorced which would hopefully make you think twice about it. But with this, where is the committment? Who would even bother trying to make a marriage work if you can just walk away. And don’t even get me started on what if you have kids! This seems to me to be one of those things that the Bible talks about when it says that in the end times the world will put out ideas that they call right, but are sinful. To me this idea seems straight from Satan. He would love nothing more than to see every marriage end. If he can dissolve the family unit then he can dissolve the whole society. As Christians we have to protect our marriages from Satan and make every effort to work things out and not get divorced.

In my own marriage, my husband and I have agreed to never bring up divorce as an option. Having come from a divorced family myself I know how destructive divorce can be. It is a painful hurt that you carry around the rest of your life, if you are a child of divorced parents. It is not in God’s plan. This whole idea in Mexico cheapens marriage to nothing more than a contract, when it is so much more. It’s a committment to another person and to children, if you have any. And I would predict that if they do pass this to law, it will only make the divorce statistics multiply, all to save a few bucks in legal fees. I also predict that if this passes in Mexico that someone will bring it up to be considered here in the US. If that happens we as Christians better be ready to fight against it. We all need to pray for Mexico that these legislators will make the right choice and not pass this law.

It does bring to light our own marriages. We need to think about this and make commitments to do everything in our power to strengthen our marriages. Even if you don’t think your marriage is in trouble, that is the time to do some maintainance work on it. Spend time with your spouse and put their needs before all others. Make them a priority and do something to show them how much you love them. Marriage is not just a legal document between two people, it’s a lifelong commitment.