Single's Week!!!

Apparently, this week is single’s week. Yay! Let’s not be so depressed or stigmatized for one whole week!

On a less sarcastic note, I find it interesting that (a) more Americans are remaining single for longer and (b) national “single week” is not about celebration, partying, random hooking up… it’s about being accepted as singles and not seen as Nebuch for it.

But in many ways, I think the state of singlehood comes with an underlying assumption (probably more than just one, but one comes to mind). As Mark Grungor says, America sees marriage as a “life sucking institution” instead of a “life giving institution” (look him up on youtube, I think he’s hilarious and insightful).  The result is that people wait, try to build themselves up and “be ready” before marriage begins to suck the energy or life out of them. So people need to have a job, a car, a house… they should travel and do everything they really want before getting tied down to the ‘ole ball-and-chain.

I find that idea itself fascinating, and it’s very different than wanting to be married or not. It’s an attitude towards what happens in marriage, which may or may not be related to my desire to get married. While I think that many of us have social, religious, biological, emotional, personal and other types of reasons for wanting to get married… what we believe will happen in marriage will still impact our approach towards dating for marriage and what we’re looking for.

With that, I want to pose the following questions. What do you believe happens in marriage? Is it energy sapping or energizing? In what ways do you expect it to require effort and in what ways will it provide support? Which side do you focus on, which is more important to you?