During the readings I kept having and impression come to me of
how effective Satan’s counterfeit is in the world. He would have us believe
that cohabitation is not only a good test run to a marriage but the right thing
to do. The appeal to the logical side of doing a test run by living together
really does appeal to the natural man, and the idea has really taken hold in
the younger generations.
With
this idea planted we are stripped of all the benefits and responsibilities of a
commitment. How much easier is it to walk away when things get tough when there
is no promises made and no legalities to work through. While we are only
focusing on the natural man we only see the personal benefits of such a
situation and lack of responsibility we have. There truly is a difference in
attitude and behavior when you have made a marriage vow. The world is
discounting this in favor of the illusion of happiness and freedom.
The
findings on cohabitation were very interesting and when you see it in the light
of the gospel and what it teaches about relations between a man and a woman it
makes total sense. Without that committed foundation of a marriage they don’t
prosper. I was thinking about the parable of the man who built on the sand and
the man who built on the rock. The sandy foundation will last will the weather
is pleasant but the first storm will demolish the foundation.
The
world really does teach us that we need to build on that ‘sandy foundation’, it
coincides with the mentality of ‘eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die’.
If you don’t plant deep roots you can move on when things go south or become
mundane and boring. What we don’t see is how this affects us to be this
unattached. There is no safe harbor when we are not planting roots in a firm
foundation. When we are continually on the emotional move and looking for
greener pastures we are never able to achieve our potential, we are too busy
with the next big thing to work on ourselves and becoming better people.
