Marriage Before 25 Should Be Illegal?

I first saw the article titled “Why I Believe Marriage Shouldn’t Be Allowed Before Age 25” in my newsfeed on Facebook. I then discovered that my fellow blogger Jami of Young Wife’s Guide had also read the article and wrote on the topic.

This article seems to have been written to get people riled up. It is based solely on the author’s experience and a statistic that 60% of marriages that occur when couples are between the ages of 20 and 25 end in divorce. Should marriage before 25 be illegal?

Apparently it is perfectly acceptable to give a 16-year-old the keys to a vehicle and allow them to drive what could be potentially a deadly weapon. It’s fine to send an 18-year-old to war where there is the potential he may not come home. It’s great to let 21-year-olds guzzle alcohol and drink themselves silly, but it’s not okay to let someone who is a legal adult marry because their marriage “might” not work out.

The author of this particular article met her now ex-husband at the age of 19 and got married at 24. Apparently, “it seemed like the right thing to do at the time because everyone knows that after five years, you should be married or at least engaged.” It sounds to me like maybe she didn’t really want to get married anyway.

She goes on to make the argument that “people under the age of 25 are still discovering themselves; they are figuring out what is most important in their lives.” I guess that means that people can’t possibly change after they turn 25.

I met my husband at 15 and married him at 19. I’m 24 now and we are still happily married. We have two beautiful children and another one on the way. Can I say that my marriage has been nothing but happiness? No, I can honestly say there have been times I thought it would end. There have been times I’ve wanted to give up. There have been times he’s wanted to give up, but we didn’t and we are so happy we didn’t.

Marriage is about commitment. No one is married for 20, 30, 40, or 50 years without believing in the commitment. Puppy love does not last forever. It doesn’t matter if you get married at 20 or 30, you have to believe in committing your life to the person you are marrying. Marriage is something to take seriously. Choose the person who has qualities that you love and then when you marry them accept them not just for what you love, but for what you don’t.

Keep God in your marriage. Faith and the belief that you were brought together with the person you are married to for a reason goes a long way. Enough said.

I know there are sometimes legitimate reasons for divorce, but I believe a good majority of people get divorced because of selfishness. There’s this attitude in our society that we need to make ourselves happy first. Being in an unhappy marriage isn’t fun, I know. Divorce is a last resort.

One day I hope to look back at all of my best memories and see my husband standing beside me. He means the world to me. We have grown and changed in our marriage, and I’m sure we will continue to grow and change. The best part is that we are doing it together. I love him for better or worse, in sickness and in health, until death do us part. We say wedding vows for a reason, they really should be taken more seriously by anyone who gets married.

I don’t know the source of the photo below. It was on Facebook, but I thought it was appropriate.

If you want to read about successful young marriages, check out Jami’s series Share Your Story: Young Wives.

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