The Family is of God

This week we learned about family trends in the world today. On average there is a rise in the number of people engaging in premarital sex, a rise in unwed births, a rise in people living alone, a rise in the number of couples cohabiting, an increase in the average age of a person at the time of marriage, a decrease in birth rates, a decrease in household size, an increase in the number of marriages ending with divorce (Lauer & Lauer, pp. 10-14). Many of these trends are largely anti-family....

We were supposed to read some research about one of the trends in families, and I chose to read about marriage age. I found that the studies show that marrying young (before 23 years old), actually has many benefits, including increased mental health and happiness in the married young adults compared to single adults of the same age, and that getting married younger doesn't necessarily lead to greater chance of divorce. (Uecker & Stokes).

So why do people wait to get married? Why do we do any of these things when research tells us that many of them leave us worse off? The reason, I believe, that we try most anything, is that we are looking for happiness, but sometimes in the wrong place.

God sent us here with a plan of happiness. It is the family. Matthew Neely's song, "The Family is of God," says "God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be—

This is how He shares His love, for the fam’ly is of God."

http://www.lds.org/friend/2008/10/the-family-is-of-god

I know that the family is of God. This is His plan for us, the way for us to be happy.

Sources:
Lauer, Robert H, and Jeanette C Lauer. Marriage & Family The Quest for Intimacy. 8th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. Print.

Uecker, J.E. and C.E. Stokes. 2008. "Early Marriage in the United States." Journal of Marriage and Family <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2008.00530.x/abstract;jsessionid=17D38ED2D00B80CA5B2F3731830BD4B2.d03t02>