Habits That Lead to Divorce: Lack of Commitment

There is a divorce in the United States every 36 seconds. Let that soak in. I just watched 36 seconds tick off on my watch and then another 36—and now there are two less marriages. While you read this blog three or four couples will end their marriage—three or four couples who sometime in probably the not-so-distant past stood at an altar and promised to love and cherish each other until one of them died. A lot of people apparently don’t take those vows very seriously for very long. The reasons that people give as they file for divorce vary, but I think that behind every reason is one fact: The commitment to their marriage was short-lived.

Honestly, I don’t want to think anyone stands at the altar and takes their vows lightly. They don’t say, “I’m only in this if it works out the way I want it to.” Yet on the day of their divorce, that is what many of them are saying. Maybe calling “lack of commitment” a “habit that leads to divorce” seems a bit odd, but in reality it makes sense. Our culture doesn’t help much. We see sports coaches make commitments and sign contracts to Team A one year and then jump to Team B the following year with seemingly no concern about the commitment they made to Team A. We see similar breaches of commitment in business and even in the church world. None of these are excuses, but I think they contribute to the problem we seem to have with making and keeping commitments.

This month we are focusing on habits that lead to divorce. You will see this topic across all of our Awesome Marriage platforms. As we begin the first week of this series, I want you to think about something. On the day of your wedding, what was your commitment to your new marriage? Rate it 1–10 with 10 being the highest. Now rate it today. Are the numbers the same or are they different? If they are different, let that be a red flag for you. What do you need to do to renew your commitment to your marriage? Whatever it is, I encourage you to start today—because if you don’t, you could become a 36-second statistic.