Week 2 of class but my first thoughts!

Hello, my name is Shelby!
Two days from now I am going to marry my best friend David and cannot wait! He is the sweetest man I have ever met, and am lucky that I get to be his wife forever!! I am currently taking a class about marriage and get to use this blog as a tool to share what I am learning with others and also benefit from keeping a record of what insights are striking me the most! This week in class we watched a few video clips and read a couple talks by church leaders and scholarly articles.  
In “State of Our Unions Marriage in 2012” it stated that most Americans know that the divorce rate is about 50%, but they do not know that in most cases the chance of it is far below that in reality. These are the statistics they gave that show the lower percentage chance of someone getting a divorce:
Annual income over $50,000 (vs. under $25,000) -30%
Having a baby seven months or more after marriage (vs. before marriage) -24%
Marrying over 25 years of age (vs. under 18) -24%
Family of origin intact (vs. divorced parents) -14%
Religious affiliation (vs. none) -14%
College (vs. high school dropout) -25%

I feel these are numbers that more people should know about, because a lot of people today in our society tend to focus on how easy divorce happens these day based off one statistic instead of looking at a variety of actual statistics. 

Now you may be wondering why I am bringing up divorce after I just mentioned that I am getting married in two days...It was something brought up and discussed heavily throughout the research we read so it is important to not be afraid to talk about it. Elder Oaks of the quorum of the twelve apostles said,  “A good marriage does not require a perfect man or a perfect woman. It only requires a man and a woman committed to strive together toward perfection.” I believe this to be true. I have full faith and confidence that David and I will be married for the rest of our lives as we focus on our marriage and our relationship with the Lord. I hope to learn more about marriage and the statistics of it in this class so that I can share them with others and encourage others to marry someone whom they love forever and can be the best spouse possible. I hope the same for myself and you! 

I hope you enjoy learning with me as you read my blog this semester. 

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