"Living Together Before Marriage"

It is known that one out of two marriages will end in divorce. According to Dr. Harley, in "Living together before Marriage", eighty-five percent of the divorced couples were cohabitating before marriage, otherwise known as: living together. With these kinds of statistics, why would people want to live together before they get married? It's a perfectly logical question, with a perfectly logical explanation. Couples naturally want to know each other before they take the big plunge. Some may say, "You have to try it before you buy it". It leads a very good point: couples should know each other before they vow to spend the rest of their lives with one another. However, it's been proven to be more harmful than helpful to a relationship, because of the habits that are inevitably created. Whether they are good or bad, habits are hard to break and may cause problems throughout a lifetime.

Cohabiting is a month-to-month agreement, says Harley, theoretically saying there is always an easy way out. People believe if things get too tough it's easier to separate rather than divorce. Yes, this is true, but what happens when the couple decides to get married? Now, they've transformed their minds to be weak, to give up when the going gets tough, and to leave when things aren't working out. That is why living together before marriage is harmful. On the other hand, married couples who have not cohabitated together have a different perspective on things, and it is easier to make decisions based on what is good for the marriage and not just for themselves. This is because they go into the marriage believing it is for life, and not a month-to-month agreement.

Marriage can be tricky because the decisions that are made are no longer for yourself, they are for the good of the marriage. Cohabitating before marriage is the very source that diminishes the meaning of marriage: oneness. A marriage is when two become one, a reading from the book, One Flame. Couples who live together before