Marriage Is Just a Piece of Paper - Part 1

My grandparents are the perfect example of a Godly marriage and of "Happily Ever After" with some bruises and bumps. God never said it'd be easy to be his children, but He says it'll be best. My grandparents have been married for over 60 years. God blessed their marriage. My parents have been divorced for over 10 years. I DO NOT loose hope in a perfect marriage in God's eyes. If He brings a couple together in His name, for His purpose, He will live within that marriage as long as those two don't stray far. Nothing can break what the Lord has joined.
Thank you for these articles.

When I got married back in the 70's, I was a naive idealistic young hippy who believed then that the core of a marriage was the commitment of two people to spend the rest of their lives together, that the marriage license and ceremony were unnecessary frills. We filed an official state marriage license anyway, largely out of respect for my new mother in law who had made a wonderfully valiant attempt to accept the strange young man her daughter had chosen to spend the rest of her life with.

Thirty years, two grown children, and one tragic divorce later, I have grown to appreciate the value and importance of the states legal recognition of a marriage commitment. When I married again two years ago, we chose to not seek state recognition of our marriage. Not because that recognition is not valuable, but because it is valuable and precious, but is not available for same gender couples.