1 Peter 4:8

“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”

I have recently seen multiple articles talking about divorce in a different way than I had before. Now, I would say that most of the time I have read about the topic of divorce, the overwhelming number of divorces that are discussed are in marriages that are less than ten to fifteen years old. However, these recent articles have highlighted a fairly recent increase in the number of divorces which occur between people in their fifties and sixties and who have been married for thirty or more years. They even have a name for them called a “twilight divorce”. As I read through these articles I was filled with sadness. How could two people who have spent so much time together and created so many memories simply say goodbye to each other?

I think about my relationship with my wife and about the amount of time we spend together. We do everything together and rely on each other in so many ways. We include each other in every decision and work to make sure that we always communicate any news to each other. There is no area of our lives which is off limit to the other. And yet, I am sure that many of those same couples who are now getting divorced would look back on their relationship and say that there was time in their marriage when they were the same way. What happens in a marriage to allow this to occur?

Several weeks ago, I heard a pastor preaching about staying on course with the Lord. He mentioned a principle that pilots are taught about the impact of being off course. The principle goes like this, if you are off by one degree, then after flying sixty miles you will be one mile off from your target. Now, one mile might not sound like a big deal but, if we were to take that principle and apply it to a fight from New York to Los Angeles, a plane would be one hundred miles away from Los Angles if it were one degree off when it left New York. That is a huge distance and could result in disaster. 

What can we take away from this information? In order to avoid being off from their target, a pilot constantly performs course corrections to make sure they stay on course. I believe this same principle should be applied to our relationship with our spouse, and also to our relationship with the Lord. When we notice that something in our relationship is not the way that it should be we must take immediate action. We must not allow the enemy to have a foothold in our marriage. Seek the Lord and make the changes that are required. Do not allow the slow fade of life to draw you and your spouse apart. Seek to draw closer together as husband and wife as you each draw closer with Christ.