What makes a marriage work?

A Minister once said, "if you murdered somebody and gave your life to Christ, all the churches would treat you like a celebrity, but if you had a divorce you can get banned from ministry altogether. Something not right there, especially since 3 quarters of our adult society above 25 yrs old has been divorced."
And the Statistics are just as bad for Christians. Because 55% of marriages end in divorce, while another 20-25% are still married unhappily and just "What is it that makes a marriage work?" Or better yet how did God design it to be when two young people fall in love and bear fruit after their own kind.
"In all the Hebrew scriptures there is no single word for the estate of marriage, or to express the abstract idea of marriage." (Unger's Bible Dictionary).
But the human bonding was designed by God to male and female.
Check out the following true story from the Book, "BONDING Relationships in the image of God." by Dr. Donald Joy, Phd.

In 1964 Karen Waterfill and Roger Caldwell became instant sweethearts. She was 13, and he was 16. They met in the church choir. Roger was a good boy, a good worker, and soon started working on the Waterfill farm. They were leaders in their class at school, and in the fall of 1965 Roger went to the University of Kentucky. About February 1966 Karen confided in her mother that she was pregnant. Karen's father cried. Her mom went into high gear; arranged for Karen to go to a home for unwed girls; made up a story about Karen going on a tour with a traveling singing group; made contact with Roger and forbade him to contact Karen, and did not disclose Karen's whereabouts. She intercepted all phone calls and mail, and Karen felt that Roger had abandoned her. September 11, 1966, Karen gave birth to a baby boy, which she gave up for adoption.

Things stood that way until June 4, 1991 (24 years later) when a telephone call from Frankfort's Human Resources office informed Karen that a young man had initiated a formal inquiry into the birth of a baby boy on September 11, 1966.

Now 24 years later, her father dead from a motor vehicle accident, her mother dead of cancer, two marriages ended in divorce, a third ready to fold, Karen had been unable to forget Roger. She always took September 11 off in remembrance of that "dark day" she gave birth to the son that she gave away. Karen agreed to meet the young man, and through information in the records she was able to make contact with Roger. After 24 years, she learned about Roger's silence. Roger ended their conversation by saying, "Karen, you are the only woman I have ever loved." As time passed and Roger never heard from Karen, he thought she didn't want to talk with him. He later got married and dropped out of school because he couldn't think straight. A son had been killed in an auto accident, his daughter had gotten married, and he had divorced.

A four-hour reunion on June 14 led them to a meeting two weeks later with a young man and his wife Mark Kitts and his wife, Dee Dee, were expecting their first baby. For the next five hours they caught up on the years between.

On August 3, 1991, in a church garden, the pastor said, "Twenty-four years ago you became my father and my mother. Today it is only right that I am the one to announce that you finally are recognized as husband and wife. Mark Kitts married Karen and Roger."

What is marriage? We may not be able to define a good marriage, but we should certainly know one when we see it.
And We are wise to note the positives of marriage rather than the negatives of divorce. Because marriage was meant to be a celebration of love.