I wrote this article for Christian Today on the benefits of long term relationships.
Recently I discussed my forty plus years of marriage with a young person. He said he couldn’t imagine being with one person for that length of time.
It caused me to think about the impact that television and the media is having on young people. No longer are long-term relationships modelled as the norm. Instead, as people change their careers, their hobbies or their opinions, they opt out of current relationships and into new ones where they hope to have more in common with their new partner. There is a lot of emotional pain and grief in this process which is never acknowledged. It causes people not to fully commit to a relationship as it may not be permanent and not worth investing in. It encourages self-protection and leads to selfishness. The possibility of a long-term relationship is diminished in this context because expectation is limited and people aren’t invested.
To read the rest of the article, click here.
