This month we are nearing the end of the summary results adopted from Why Marriage Matters: Thirty Conclusions from the Social Sciences, a publication of the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values.   The final area in which the study found that Marriage Matters is in regards to Crime and Domestic Violence.  These are the findings:

• Boys raised in non-intact families are more likely to engage in delinquent and criminal behavior.
• Marriage appears to reduce the risk that adults will be either perpetrators or victims of crime.
• Married women appear to have a lower risk of experiencing domestic violence than do cohabitating or dating women.
• A child who is not living with his or her own two married parents is at greater risk of child abuse.

As I read these summaries I thought of St. Paul’s words to all married couples in Ephesians Chapter 5 where he writes: “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord…Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…”  They reminded me of an article that I read by Jimmy Evans who once wrote: “The best marriages are built on two servants in love.”  When a marriage is built on serving Christ and serving one another the husband and wife will love, honor, and cherish each other and fulfill the wedding vows that they took.  Jesus’ example of coming not to be served but to serve (Matthew 28:20) will then be the model for both husband and wife.  That attitude will produce a home filled not with violence but of love, respect, and happiness.