Why

With this being Valentines week I have been thinking about love. In fact I gave a talk about love in church. I received very sad news this week about some dear friends and the break up of their marriage. Did you know that there is a 60% chance of first time marriages ending. However there has never been a higher remarriage rate. How come love starts with boxes of chocolates and ends with fighting over the empty box? My one friends reminds me we each came to earth with the great gift of agency. So even if we love our spouse and do our best they still get to choose whether to remain true to the marriage or to use their agency for selfish pursuits and hurt those that love and depend on them. I know there are 100s of reasons but I was thinking about the big picture. I really believe that if we could only see a glimpse of what we will be like in the next life after we have learned more, grown and been perfected we would just adore and worship our spouse. Not that we would place them above God, he is always first. But we all have such greatness inside and when we are further along on the road of refinement imagine the possibilities. I am so sad when I think of all my divorced friends, they are unhappy and lonely. Most if asked if they could do it over say YES. I understand there are exceptions to every rule and it is a personal thing but I just ache for my friends. My parents had a hard marriage, it was not perfect, but they stuck it out. I am really grateful to them for that. I know in the end they started to really love and care for each other again. I have also learned that just because a couple doesn't act like Scott and I that doesn't mean they are not in love. There is a wonderful talk about marriage I wish everyone could hear called "the Awesome power of Married Love" by Truman Madsen. I also wonder if some major unexpected event happened if any of these wanting to end their marriages would have a change of heart. I know that after 9-11 most of those who had filled for divorce changed their minds. I guess many things in life come down to perspective. I think that in life often people are tempted to place short term gains in front of the long term wins. This same principal destroys businesses and it is cheating us out of the the things that matter most... our forever families. Plus we have the atonement of Jesus so we can repent and come walk with God again, he loves us so much and wants us to be happy.
http://www.mormon.org/learn/0,8672,1149-1,00.html (happy family site)
http://www.mormon.org/mediapopup_hr/0,8857,8388-1,00.html (cute movie)
http://www.divorcemag.com/statistics/statsUS.shtml (sad stats site)