Suzanne Woods Fisher has an interesting piece on Amish marriage in the Christian Post.  Suzanne shares examples of Amish married couples, and reasons why Amish marriages last.

amish marriageFirst and foremost, of course, is that Amish do not tolerate divorce.

Not that Amish married life is always smooth sailing, a fact that Suzanne notes in her post.  There are some instances of separation among Amish, though rare–you occasionally hear of one spouse leaving the other.

This may come with a departure from the Amish church as well (or may not).  To their credit, many Amish recognize a need for counseling in some marital unions.

Suzanne asked me for a few thoughts on longevity in Amish marriages.  Here’s a bit of what I shared:

“Mulling the divorce option in the back of the mind when things get tough in a relationship—I think that just sucks energy away from where it could be used constructively to strengthen a relationship. Not that that is necessarily the reaction of Amish couples to sit down and say ‘hey how can we fix this’—there are definitely communication issues like anywhere else—but the impact of the messages of Christian love that get repeated in Church and daily devotions and everywhere else in the culture cannot be overstated.”

Now, the caveat here is that I am not married. But I know a number of you are.  So what do you think?  What makes a marriage last?

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