An interesting thing happened in Modesto, California. In the same period of time that population grew 40 percent, divorces dropped seven percent! How do you account for that?

    The churches in that community had decided together to insist that young couples who were getting married have counseling before they got married. A four month waiting period before the marriage was instituted, along with conflict resolution for engaged couples, psychological personality profiles, and multiple sessions of counseling. Healthy couples were also used as mentors. And it worked! About 15 percent of the couples who were not well matched called off their weddings.

    So, pre-marriage counseling based on God’s word works. It’s good sense, and it puts the same high value on marriage that we find in God’s word.

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