He's Her Robster

In one of the episodes of the television series Friends, Phoebe says this when talking about Ross and Rachel: "It's a known fact that lobsters fall in love and mate for life. You can actually see old lobster couples walking around their tank, you know, holding claws." Of course, the audience laughs. Ayla loves lobsters. She has a stuffed one we bought her and lobsters on clothes, lobster jewelry. She's just had a thing for them. So it was fitting when we joked, with Ayla's love of Friends, that Rob was her "Robster." Here's the thing ... after a bit of research the sad truth is lobsters don't mate for life. Nor do they hold claws. They mate for maybe a week. So all kidding aside, we sure hope Rob isn't Ayla's lobster.

Believe it or not, there are animal species that mate for life. Swans, angelfish, wolves (yeah, you thought that whole imprint thing in the movie New Moon was fictional), termites (creepy, yes), turtle doves (well, of course, they would), bald eagles, otters, seahorses (yep, Kayla, they do), beavers, penguins (something about that collection, Anton, hee hee), black vultures and red foxes among others. So apparently mating for life isn't just a human thing.

However, sometimes it's not even a human thing. Some organizations interpret statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics as showing that 40 to 50 percent of marriages in the United Stated end in divorce. This is based on the ratio of marriages to divorces in a year. But reading the statistic that way is misleading. If 2 million people get married in a year and 1 million divorce that same year, it doesn't mean half of all marriages end in divorce. It doesn't account for the nearly 60 million married people in the US according to 2014 statistics. According to Truthorfiction.com/divorce/, that statistic can be anywhere from 11-34 percent of marriages depending no how to look at it. So it's not nearly as dire as it appears.

Here's the thing, just because you say "I do," doesn't mean it will last forever. Just because you love each other with your whole hearts right now, doesn't mean you'll be like the bald eagles, otters and beavers of the world. For them it is instinct. For humans, it's a choice. We believe when you make the choice to marry, you are vowing to stay together for this earthly lifetime. It's based on our faith. Christ said in Mark 10:9, "Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate." But you have to work at it. It's not something that will just happen. You need to proactively love and stay faithful to the one with whom God unites you. So don't rest in your marriage. Strive every day to make it beautiful and lasting. So you can be each other's black vulture or termite (doesn't sound even remotely romantic, does it?). Just be one another's beloved as described in Song of Solomon 6:3 "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine."

Discussion: What do you think about mating for life? What do you think it takes to stay married for life?

Prayer: Father God, we pray when those vows are said we mean them. That we devote the rest of our lives to love, honor and cherish our beloved. Help us to remember to work at our marriages for You and to Your glory. In Jesus, Amen."