Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on family study. Family Study: Wedding Vows and Divorce Marriage is one of the oldest s in human history. Since time immemorial, menand women have unit

Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on family study. Family Study: Wedding Vows and Divorce Marriage is one of the oldest s in human history. Since time immemorial, menand women have united to form family units. Technically, the primary purpose of marriage is for procreation. Additionally, other purposes include emotional support in form of love and physical pleasure in form of sex. In contemporary times, acceptable union between couples starts after a wedding. Married partners are supposed to demonstrate willing commitment towards their union. Verbally, this commitment is expressed in form of wedding vows. The common phrases include, ‘…in sickness and in good health’, ‘for better or for worse’ and ‘till death do us part’ among others (Keller, 37). Immediately after a wedding, couples would show substantial commitment towards these vows. However, circumstances may change along the journey of a marriage. One partner may develop negative habits and even abusive behavior towards the other partner. In addition, one partner may experience deteriorating health. hence dimming the hope of married couples. Today, such worsening situations often call for divorce, which in this case constitutes breaking of the wedding vows.

Personally, I believe that divorce is not necessary. Wedding vows are synonymous to oaths of duty. Soldiers swear to protect their nation even if protection calls for sacrifice of one’s life. Similarly, marriage vows, especially the one saying, ‘for better or for worse’ should possess its traditional meaning throughout the relationship. The willingness to commit oneself into a marriage should not depend on prevailing circumstances. I believe each of the committed partners is cognizant of the fact that the world is not perfect. Individuals have strengths and weaknesses. Also. love, companionship and forgiveness are the essential pillars of marriage, which are explicitly expressed in form of wedding vows (Keller, 32). In this regard, I am of the opinion that marriage relationships should be permanent.

Inasmuch as I discredit divorce in marriages, I believe that crossing certain boundaries necessitates separation between couples. Morally, most societies and religions regard marriage as a sacred covenant. Married couple must remain loyal and faithful to one another. However, these moral platforms assert that lack of faithfulness cannot be tolerated. Nowadays, couples dissolve their marriages for slights reasons like financial insecurity, psychological dissatisfaction and for selfish pursuit of self-centered pleasures (Keller, 34). Such slight reasons are not justifiable. Persons basing their divorce on reasons like financial insecurity only wishes to escape responsibilities that come with marriage. However, grave reasons like infidelity inevitably necessitate dissolution of marriage. Sexual infidelity is the epitome of mistakes possible within a marriage institution. Consequently, such a grave mistake is not forgivable.

Often, the vow, ‘until death separates us’ changes to ‘until sickness do us part’. At the beginning of marriage, most partners are of a young age, and have sound health. With time, sickness and bad health dawns on a marriage. A partner may suffer from acute or severe mental illness, and even worse, gets diagnosed with cancer. Admittedly, both mental and physical illnesses cause distress in a family. A once economically productive person may be rendered dependent by illness. However, illness must not break a family. Typically, any human being eventually gets ill. Ill persons needs close attention and committed care (Keller, 28). As mentioned earlier, marriage vows are oaths. They should not be broken whenever circumstances worsen. In the presence of loyalty and faithfulness, married partners must stay together permanently, of course until death intervenes. Therefore, sickness should not be a deal breaker.

Work Cited

Keller, Timothy. The Meaning of Wedding Vows: Facing the complexities of commitment. Pittsburg: Penguin Group, 2013. Print.