{"id":9709,"date":"2012-08-21T11:47:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-21T16:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites-stage.familylife.com\/flministries\/?p=9709"},"modified":"2024-11-08T13:13:43","modified_gmt":"2024-11-08T18:13:43","slug":"reaching-the-divorce-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/articles\/topics\/faith\/essentials-faith\/reaching-out\/reaching-the-divorce-generation\/","title":{"rendered":"Reaching the Divorce Generation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cEvery generation has its life-defining moments,\u201d\u00a0wrote Susan Gregory Thomas recently<\/a> in the Wall Street Journal<\/em>. \u201cIf you want to find out what it was for a member of the Greatest Generation, you ask: \u2018Where were you on D-Day?\u2019 For baby boomers, the questions are: \u2018Where were you when Kennedy was shot?\u2019 or \u2018What were you doing when Nixon resigned?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cFor much of my generation\u2014Generation X, born between 1965 and 1980\u2014there is only one question: \u2018When did your parents get divorced?\u2019 Our lives have been framed by the answer. Ask us. We remember everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

So starts a powerful article titled \u201cThe Divorce Generation.\u201d My boss here at FamilyLife is Bob Lepine, co-host of the FamilyLife Today<\/em>\u00ae<\/sup>\u00a0podcast<\/a> and when he sent me a link to the article he commented, \u201cThis may be the best picture of today\u2019s young couples that I\u2019ve read.\u201d I agree.<\/p>\n

When I was growing up, few of my friends had parents who were divorced.\u00a0But for the next generation it was a different story.\u00a0As Thomas writes, \u201cOur suburb was littered with sad-eyed, bruised nomads, who wandered back and forth between used-record shops to the sheds behind the train station where they got high and then trudged off, back and forth from their mothers’ houses during the week to their fathers’ apartments every other weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she grew up and got married herself, Thomas looked back at the damage from her parents\u2019 breakup and declared, \u201cWhatever happens, we\u2019re never going to get divorced.\u201d<\/p>\n

And with those words, you know how the story will end.\u00a0She and her husband are determined to make their marriage work, but in the end they drift apart and become nothing more than \u201cwretched, passive-aggressive roommates.\u201d\u00a0In the end she\u2019s left with the hope that her divorce will somehow not damage her children like she was hurt by her parents.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sad story, but it\u2019s worth reading.\u00a0I was left thinking that this was a marriage of two people who wanted to stay together, but didn\u2019t know how to do it.\u00a0And they evidently didn\u2019t know where to turn for help.<\/p>\n

\u201cHarassed and helpless\u201d<\/h2>\n

I wonder how many of us realize that we live in neighborhoods full of couples like this\u2014stuck in marriages of (in the words of Henry David Thoreau) \u201cquiet desperation.\u201d\u00a0This offers us a tremendous opportunity to proclaim the love, forgiveness, and salvation offered by Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

Matthew 9 records:<\/p>\n

And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.\u00a0(verses 35-38)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

People today are still \u201charassed and helpless,\u201d and the harvest is as plentiful as it was in the days of Christ.\u00a0Realizing this, FamilyLife is making a greater effort than ever before to encourage and equip people like you to become HomeBuilders\u2014people who will become laborers in the harvest.<\/p>\n

As part of our new HomeBuilder Movement, we\u2019ve created a toolbox of resources and ministry opportunities, including:<\/p>\n