Divorce is not a verb

This is the first of my “is not a verb” posts. Perhaps its because I was an English major “back in the day” (as my kids would say) when I was in college. Maybe it is because I am a writer, maybe it is because for me it is just one of life’s little annoyances. Whatever the reason, I am have decided to embark on this journey, so just sit back, relax, (and where possible) enjoy yourself. Today’s topic is not only thought provoking but also one of those hard ones to deal with…. Here goes!

Divorce is NOT a verb! Do you know that there are a lot of people, including Merriam Webster who don’t realize that. I have a problem with the dictionary adopting the meaning of the day instead of putting down what a word actually means and how it is supposed to be used. Divorce is one of those words. This is a hard topic to deal with because divorces are obtained left and right in our day and age. The rate is alarming! The website divorcerate.org maintains that the divorce rate is not quite 50% as is usually reported–yet still pretty high– but even their stats confuse me. Why? Because they break up the divorce rate among men and women. Could somebody please tell me how that can be done. When one person obtains a divorce does it not effect both parties? And isn’t marriage the union between one man and one woman? That being the case shouldn’t the divorce rate between men and women be equal or is my math off! Must be that gnu math. I’m not sure who came up with that breakdown, but they need to rethink it. And we wonder why we have to redefine marriage.

What most people don’t want to realize is that the marriage vow is for better or for worse. The vow does not say to stay together when things are better and get out of dodge when things are worse. But that is what our world thinks is the case. A lot of people may not agree with this, but the vows are the way they are so that there is not any wiggle room and people actually HAVE to work things out. (Oh no! He didn’t say that did he?). But people don’t work things out any more…they go to court and obtain a divorce. God Condemns divorce in the book of Malachi!

God allowed for divorce through Mosaic law with the “bill of divorcement.” I think it is because he knew that we were not perfect and that as sinful beings divorce of some type (allowed or not) would happen. I think that is the only reason he allowed a provision for it. But it is CLEARLY not his preference.

Some folks will say that it is in the Bible so it must be OK with God. Sin is in the Bible! Is sin OK with God? NOOOOOOO! God also gave specific guidelines for divorce, which I believe were closely followed at one time, but not any longer.

Notice that in the biblical sense, divorce is not a verb! We don’t “get” diovrces and we don’t “get” divorced. But when they decided that it became a state of being they also tried to make it into an action word. And with the rate at which divorce occurs these days, it is hard to make the argument that I am making. Nonetheless, I’m making it! The word itself and the practice needs to be stricken from our language an lifestyles. Most people who go through the divorce process do so because they can’t change their spouses into what they want them to be. The BIBLE says we need to change ourselves and in doing so that will cause others to change. But then that means the onus is on us! (Just what God wants!!!) I guess we can’t have that. Besides, its so much easier, society has found, to displace the blame. Christians and non-Christians alike are just as guilty. For better or for worse means divorce is NOT an option. But I hear these days you can change your vows so that that phrase is not included. Why bother getting married? To me that is getting married and planning on going through a divorce at some point. Well I could ramble on for quite some time, but I’m sure you have other blog entries that you want to get to. So, now that I have made my point, I’ll end this one here and start work on the next “is not a verb” post. Many of you who know me can surely guess what’s coming next!