Thursday, May 26, 2011

Maybe the Tides are Turning...or Turning More Liberal

I heard on WAY-FM that marriages are more stable and divorce is less common than in the 1980s. Over 70% of the people who got married in 1990 are still together. Even though less people are getting married today, the ones that do are sticking together. I find this very encouraging. Maybe the tides are turning. :) Divorce is a devastating and horrendous (and, most of the time, needless) reality in our culture. When one looks at the ultimate reason God designed marriage - a visual representation of the relationship between Christ and His church (i.e. the Gospel; Ephesians 5) - then the travesty of divorce is all the greater. Since I work in the wedding industry, I see the very beginning of marriages as I work with excited and hopeful couples. Rarely do I get the chance to see anything past the wedding invitation. We have had, however, a few customers come in recently to buy invitations to celebrate fifty years or more in marriage. I think that is awesome. I get excited when I meet people who have been married for a long time. With the divorce, lack of commitment & responsibility and the exchange of love for lust that so permeates our culture, to meet a couple that has been married for over ten years is a rarity and privilege. My own parents will be celebrating their 35th anniversary this July. :)

On the same radio program, the DJ's were talking about the increase in women proposing to men.. Sign of the liberal times, I guess. Apparently, women get sick of waiting, so they pop the question to their man. There is something very disturbing and upside-down about this shift in our culture and points to the passivity in many men in our society. Sort of along the same lines, I have noticed a rising trend in women not taking their husbands' surnames in marriage. Here are some reasons I have heard for it: fear of losing her "identity" (whatever that means); afraid people won't know her in the professional world with a new last name; and a the desire (though not verbally expressed, but implied) to go against tradition. Several married women have come into Papers Unique lately to order stationery with their monogram or name on it announcing to me that they have either kept their previous last name or hyphenated their new last name with their old. They then want to know how their name and/or monogram should appear on their stationery. My answer (well, at least in my head): take your husband's last name and the world would be a simpler, happier place. :)

I was talking to a friend once about relationships, marriage and divorce. This friend does not trust men in general and believes that a woman must be self-sufficient so as not to be dependent on her husband. She broke my heart as she told me she didn't plan on being married to the same man  for the rest of her life. I explained to her God's design for marriage (along with the Gospel of Christ), the relational roles of the husband and wife and how ultimately our trust must be in God who sovereignly orchestrates all things for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). It was a difficult conversation, to say the least, but the Lord has graciously given her a heart to learn more of what the Bible says on the matter. She is not a believer, but she has come to see that God's design for marriage is good and right and that Jesus makes the difference in relationships. Pray with me that she will also see that Jesus is the one who will make the difference in her life and that she will realize her need for Him.

Summer Movie Review: Country Strong - 2 out of 5 stars

Now that my sister is out of school and summer is practically here, we can now hang out and do fun things...like catch up on movies we haven't seen. I have created my first movie list, which consists of about 10 movies (some newly produced and some older). Country Strong wasn't actually on my list, but it looked interesting and the title was appealing. I mean, the Hovis girls are country strong, right??? ;) This movie was not what I expected. It was terribly depressing. There was no conflict resolution, a lot of sex and a horrid ending. The fact that adultery was in it automatically prevents it from having more than 3 stars. Kristi and I decided to give it 2 stars because the music was good (we appreciate good and genuine country music) and the acting was superb. As depressing at it was, the plot could have been taken out of real life (but don't we watch movies to escape real life?). Throughout the movie, the main character was referred to as "a strong woman," "tough as nails," etc. This woman had fame, riches, honor and everything this world could buy, but she had no hope and no peace and her life reflected it. She needed Christ. The movie is a perfect picture of what happens when we try to live life in our strength - our strength runs out and we fail. I ran across this verse after watching the movie in my study in Isaiah:
And the strong shall become tinder, and his work a spark, and both of them shall burn together, with none to quench them. Isaiah 1:31

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