What is the divorce rate in the city or town in which you live? Not different from the rest of the State or Nation, I am suppose.

Is the divorce rate lower in the “Church” than in the general population? Again, I am told that there is very little difference .

Does “shaking up” (living together but not married) lower the divorce rate or make that partnership more likely to succeed? Nope. No difference. In fact, the separation rate between “domestic” partners who do not marry but just decide to live together may be even a little higher than the general divorce rate.

Sooooooooooooo, what are we to do? Well, for starters, let’s not give up on the “ . . pray together stays together “ motto. I’ll bet that if we look at the folks who practice some kind of intimate and thoughtful time together, in prayer or meditation or, their divorce rate is close to zero! I know lots of couples that have been together for 20 or 30 or more years but they stopped thinking about divorce a long, long time ago. If you have not decided to never consider divorce; if you have not

given much thought about giving special time to your partner, then your marriage/union is probably in serious trouble – you just don’t know it, as of yet. Good luck with that.