Do you know what one of the easiest kinds of contracts to break
in the United States is?
The marriage contract.
(Gayle and I believe marriage is a sacred covenant not a contract.)
In fact, it’s harder to get out of your timeshare contract than
your marriage!
The
legal system makes one of the most important agreements of
our lives the easiest to break.
Here’s an interesting exercise: Compare corporate law to
marriage law.
Lawyers will do anything to defend and protect corporations.
And they will do everything within their power to force US
to honor our commitments with business institutions such as
banks or car dealers.
But the legal system does very little to keep a husband or
wife in their "contract" with each other.
Consider this…it’s lawful for a husband or wife to break
their
marriage contract at any time with their spouse for
any reason - but what legal recourse does a spouse have
to keep their marital contract in place if they want
to save their marriage?
They have very few legal options.
By the way divorce usually always costs much more
financially than people think - and it hurts more, too.
Divorce creates economic hardship and devastation for the
couple and
even for the state.
Consider these numbers:
The annual cost of divorce is estimated to be
over thirty
billion dollars, costing local and federal governments
$30,000 per divorce annually on average in law
enforcement and government assistance programs.
On average,
divorce will cost the typical couple $18,000
because of time away from work, relocation/moving expenses,
and legal costs.
Of course this can very depending on the financial situation
of the couple.
But there isn’t just a financial cost there’s also an emotional cost,
which we’ll cover in a future tip. And it’s our opinion that the
emotional cost is so much more expensive than the financial cost.
My goal in writing this set of weekly tips isn’t to make anyone
feel bad or guilty or bad. Not at all. We're not defined by our
past but by the decisions we make today.
All I really
want is to encourage people to give their marriage
more time by doing whatever it takes to keep their family together.
You can always get divorced but you have just one chance to
save your
marriage.
The pain of divorce is much worse than the pain of confronting
your marriage problems or resolving your relational issues.
You deserve to be happy.
And you deserve to be in a relationship that is filled with love
and passion.
With some effort and courage, you can have the marriage of
your dreams. Others have done it, so can you.
Until next time, this Mike & Gayle Tucker and we want you
to be mad about marriage!
