{"id":84142,"date":"2025-02-06T12:55:58","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T18:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=84142"},"modified":"2025-02-06T15:52:39","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T21:52:39","slug":"testing-the-state-of-your-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/testing-the-state-of-your-union\/","title":{"rendered":"Testing the State of Your Union"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> Sentry Magazine, Vol. 14, No. 3, September 30, 1988.<\/p>\n<p>According to a recent study by the University of New York (at Stoney Brook), the following factors may be regarded as &#8220;predictors&#8221; of marital failure. If a number of these circumstances exist, then it can be assumed that the marriage will end in divorce.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You lived together before marriage.<\/li>\n<li>Before marriage, and in the first 18 months of your marriage, you slapped your partner in anger.<\/li>\n<li>The male partner frequently refuses to engage in sex.<\/li>\n<li>You married either before you were 23 or after the age of 25. (Interestingly, marriages in the low to mid-twenties seem to be more stable.)<\/li>\n<li>You have thought seriously about divorce as an alternative.<\/li>\n<li>You often yell at your partner in anger.<\/li>\n<li>One of you has a drinking problem.<\/li>\n<li>You communicate poorly in your marriage.<\/li>\n<li>One of you felt uncertainty about your love even before your marriage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The presence of these &#8220;predictors&#8221; does not mean that a marriage will end in divorce, but where several exist, a divorce will likely result.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Sentry Magazine, Vol. 14, No. 3, September 30, 1988. According to a recent study by the University of New York (at Stoney Brook), the following factors may be regarded as &#8220;predictors&#8221; of marital failure. If a number of these circumstances exist, then it can be assumed that the marriage will end in divorce. You&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,895],"tags":[167],"class_list":["post-84142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issues","category-preparation","tag-divorce"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49873,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/selfishness-and-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":84142,"position":0},"title":"Selfishness and Marriage","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by J. R. Bronger Divorce! This word used to call to mind \"breaking up a home,\" and with it trauma, unhappiness, and all manner of problems. Today, however, it is so commonplace that it rarely raises an eyebrow. There is no need to overwhelm you with statistics in order to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43526,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-matthew-199-only-refer-to-fornication-prior-to-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":84142,"position":1},"title":"Does Matthew 19:9 only refer to fornication prior to marriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I am confused about your definition of porneia in Mathew 5:32 and Matthew 19:9. In your answer to the question \"My wife is leaving me after only seven months of marriage. Where does this leave me?\" you said that: \"One of the reasons for the divorce has to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16434,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-sex-before-marriage-a-sin-for-a-couple-who-divorced-their-prior-spouses\/","url_meta":{"origin":84142,"position":2},"title":"Is sex before marriage a sin for a couple who divorced their prior spouses?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 4, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My partner and I are both divorced. Both of our previous partners committed adultery. We are engaged and find it difficult to find any reference in the Bible to our situation regarding sex before marriage. Could you help, please? Answer: You are currently not married. You only have a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42225,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-there-be-adultery-after-divorce-ends-a-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":84142,"position":3},"title":"How can there be adultery after divorce ends a marriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: You said on your website: \"When one partner in a marriage commits adultery, the innocent party has the option to divorce the unrepentant adulterer and may marry someone else if he or she so chooses.\u00a0The adulterer remains bound by the terms of his marriage covenant.\u00a0Anyone marriage enters into will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17196,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-divorced-person-remarry-if-adultery-occurred-after-the-divorce\/","url_meta":{"origin":84142,"position":4},"title":"Can a divorced person remarry if adultery occurred after the divorce?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If two people are divorced for unbiblical grounds and there is no adultery at the time, yet one spouse after the divorce marries someone else or is sexually immoral is the other then free to remarry another? Answer: \"And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22953,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-we-had-committed-fornication-would-god-judge-us-and-force-us-to-divorce\/","url_meta":{"origin":84142,"position":5},"title":"If we had committed fornication, would God judge us and force us to divorce?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Of late, I have been pouring over the articles on the La Vista church website. I came across a number of articles that have left me a bit confused. I wonder if my girlfriend and I can still get married even though we committed fornication. According to \"Why Sex\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}