Should I Keep Trying To Work It Out?

Nowadays, divorce seems to be the "easy way out" of a marriage. Often times, people enter into a civil or eternal marriage thinking, "Well, if it doesn't work out, i guess there's always divorce." Researchers have estimated that 40 to 50 percent of marriages are ending in divorce in the United States. "Faithful Latter-Day Saints are hardly immune to divorce. Precise estimates of the Latter-Day Saint divorce rate are difficult to obtain but ones estimate is that 25-30 percent of LDS couples who regularly attend church experience a divorce" (Successful Marriages and Families pg. 79). There are many options that a couple can take to strengthen their marriage when struggling. Some of them include: Speaking with their bishop, seeking out counsel from a professional, working on their weaknesses together and realizing that divorce really shouldn't be an option. And if it is, it MUST be a last resort. Parents do not realize that divorce does not only affect them, but their children also. "For a young child, psychologically, divorce is the equivalent of lifting a hundred pound weight over the head. Processing all the radical and unprecedented changes-loss of a parent, loss of a home, of friends- stretches immature cognitive and emotional abilities to the absolute limit and sometimes beyond that limit" (79). So, if you find that your own marriage is struggling, please, think of your options, of your children and of your future!