Or it might be an excuse to point you to this article that Christian Living just published by my daughter.
Caught in the “Happiness Trap”: The Ultimate Goal of Marriage
Last Friday, two things happened that radically impacted my view of marriage.
The first was a quote that a DJ was discussing on the radio. He talked about a tweet someone posted that basically said that the goal of marriage was not happiness, that happiness was simply one of the benefits.
Intellectually, I understand this. Marriage is difficult, often full of mountains and valleys, and anyone married for a long period of time will tell you it is not always happy.
However, it is so easy to get sucked into the “happiness trap” when we talk about marriage. Think about the way people talk about couples:
Marriage is, in its civic function, checks and balances on human sexuality. Humans don't automatically gravitate toward sexual behavior conducive to their individual psychology, or to their ability to socialize amicably with others, or to the rearing of children. Marriage doesn't bring about happiness so much as it minimizes misery - it disincentivizes certain behaviors and thus ameliorates the various forms of strife caused by said behaviors.
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