Anniversary!

Today, my dear wife and I celebrated our 41st wedding anniversary!  Quite an achievement (for her, at any rate!).  Sadly, there appears to a large number of couples who, whether having entered into a formal marital relationship, or not, don't even manage to spend 10 years together, let alone four times that period.

However, even if a marriage lasts only a relatively short time, it is still the cultural norm in any society, past or present, of which I am aware, that it will be between a man and a woman.  Within a Biblical context, it is a man and a woman, to the exclusion of all others, for life.  And that, it has been shown over and over again, is the best environment for the raising of children.  I don't have any statistics (and don't know if they even exist) as to the number of the rioters and robbers in the recent disturbances in London, and some other English cities, who are the product of so-called "single parents", but it would not surprise me to discover that many of them were.  Indeed, there could well have been a significant number who are second-generation "one-parent" children!  I am not, of course, referring to those who, through the death of their spouse, have been left to raise a family on their own.  In such cases, my experience is that they are excellent parents, and do all that they can to make up for the missing one.

People may scoff at "the good book" (aka The Bible) with its ideas, and precepts, that they consider to be old-fashioned, and not appropriate for modern 'western' society.  But that Book, given by the Creator, is the best possible guide to life and living.  Indeed, it is the only book that deals, not just with living out our mortal existences, but with how we may be assured of our eternal destiny. 

We disregard it at our peril - and the peril of society as a whole!