9. It Can Save Your Life.

"Nine out of ten married guys who are alive at 48 will make it to age 65, compared with just six in ten comparable single guys (controlling for race, education, and income). For women, the protective benefits of marriage are also powerful, though not quite as large. Nine out of ten wives alive at age 48 will live to be senior citizens, compared with just eight out of ten divorced and single women."

8. It Can Save Your Kid's Lives

"Forty-year-olds from divorced homes were three times more likely to die from all causes than 40-year-olds whose parents stayed married."

7. You Will Earn More Money

"Married men make, by some estimates, as much as 40 percent more money than comparable single guys, even after controlling for education and job history. The longer a man stays married, the higher the marriage premium he receives. Wives' earnings also benefit from marriage, but they decline when motherhood enters the picture."

6. Did I Mention You'll Get Richer?

"Married people not only make more money, they manage money better and build more wealth together than either would alone. At identical income levels, for example, married people are less likely to report "economic hardship" or trouble paying basic bills. The longer you stay married, the more assets you build."

5. You'll Tame His/Her Cheatin' Heart

"Marriage increases sexual fidelity. Cohabiting men are four times more likely to cheat than husbands, and cohabiting women are eight times more likely to cheat than wives. Marriage is also the only realistic promise of permanence in a romantic relationship. Just one out of ten cohabiting couples are still cohabiting after five years. By contrast, 80 percent of couples marrying for the first time are still married five years later, and close to 60 percent (if current divorce rates continue) will marry for life."

4. You'll Not Go Bonkers

"Marriage is good for your mental health. Married men and women are less depressed, less anxious, and less psychologically distressed than single, divorced, or widowed Americans. . .Married men are only half as likely as bachelors and one-third as likely as divorced guys to take their own lives. Wives are also much less likely to commit suicide than single, divorced, or widowed women. Married people are much less likely to have problems with alcohol abuse or illegal drugs."

3. It Will Make You Happy

"Overall, 40 percent of married people, compared with about a quarter of singles or cohabitors, say they are "very happy" with life in general. Married people are also only about half as likely as singles or cohabitors to say they are unhappy with their lives."

2. Your Kids Will Love You More

"Divorce weakens the bonds between parents and children over the long run. Adult children of divorce describe relationships with both their mother and their father less positively, on average, and they are about 40 percent less likely than adults from intact marriages to say they see either parent at least several times a week."

1. You'll Have A Better Sex Life

"Married people are also the most likely to report a highly satisfying sex life. Wives, for example, are almost twice as likely as divorced and never-married women to have a sex life that a) exists and b) is extremely satisfying emotionally. Contrary to popular lore, for men, having a wife beats shacking up by a wide margin: 50 percent of husbands say sex with their partner is extremely satisfying physically, compared with 39 percent of cohabiting men."

Maggie makes a very significant point in one of her final paragraphs when she says that "marriage is a partnership in the whole of life, backed up by family, community, and religious values, marriage can do what economic partnerships don't: give a greater sense of meaning and purpose to life (a reason to exercise or cut back on booze, work harder, and to keep plugging even in the middle of those times when the marriage may not feel gratifying at all). Married people are both responsible for and responsible to another human being, and both halves of that dynamic lead the married to live more responsible, fruitful, and satisfying lives. Marriage is a transformative act, changing the way two people look at each other, at the future, and at their roles in society. And it changes the way significant others—from family to congregation to insurance companies and the IRS—look at and treat that same couple. Sexual fidelity, an economic union, a parenting alliance, the promise of care that transcends day-to-day emotions: all these are what give a few words mumbled before a clergyman or judge the power to change lives."

Of course, we already knew this to be true when we examined God's outline for life, summarized in the Ten Commandments. In commenting upon the one forbidding adultery, Martin Luther wrote, "We should fear and love God so that we lead a sexually pure and decent life in what we say and do, and husband and wife love and honor each other." Those who follow these guidelines find many blessings from their Creator.

Christian couples claim reasons for staying together beyond those listed above, as good as they may be. They learn to love one another because they know they're always loved by the Lord Jesus, the Husband who left His Father and joined Himself to His bride, the church, and gave Himself for her, even to death on the cross.

In His instructions about marriage, the Apostle Paul writes about the mystery tied up with marriage (Ephesians 5:22-33). He quotes the guidance God gave when Eve was given to Adam. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."

Then he continues, "This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband."

In the mysterious and never-ending love that Christ has for His bride, the church, we find the power to give and forgive, to love and be loved in this God-designed relationship called marriage.

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