Marriage Vs. Cohabitation

Marriage vs. Cohabitation

Twenty-one years ago I stood at the alter before two preachers, with a wedding party of seventy participants, in a church with three hundred guest in attendance. I was twenty-five years of age at that time. The music plays. The doors open. I turn, through the tunnel of love; I behold an angelic being, my bride, Celeste. Forty –five minutes later I walked, in a floating manner, outside with my joy and pride to start a new chapter in my life with my new wife.

The party is over. The gifts are received. The guests have left. We are all alone and newly married. The fantasy of long awaited dreams stands before me full of beauty and mystery. Just in case I thought it was a dream; the reality of the event was made clear when I woke the next day with "the ring" on "the finger" and "the woman" in bed next to me. The wedding is over. The marriage begins. Is the marriage just beginning or was it planned from my birth? What made the moment special? How did we know we would work out? Why didn't we cohabitate before marriage? When did we feel that marriage was the next step to take in our relationship? The questions and more will be answered. Being the product of successfully married parents I believe that, "Marriage is honorable and the bed is undefiled"... Hebrews 13:4.

Living in this world has taught me that everyone does not share my belief. There are some that believe two people with the possibility of getting married can have a trial period by cohabitating. Some desire to "try" it out first before moving forward to marriage. . Today we must add that this includes people of the same gender. One thing I found interesting was that "same sex" marriages is neither a new concept nor practice. Same sex marriages sound so new, but when Columbus landed in the Americas, some Native American tribes already had same sex marriages. Through a ceremony called the berdache, a man or woman who wanted to be a member of the opposite sex was officially declared to have his or her sex changed. The "new" man or woman put on clothing and performed the tasks associated with his or her new sex, and were allowed to marry (Henslin, J 2011).

We are now faced with having to establish the difference between marriage and cohabitation. Marriage is and institution that was established by God. The first marriage is attributed to that of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden as recorded in the book of Genesis. This was said to be done by God because he realized that Adam, the first man, did not have a suitable companion. God allowed Adam to fall into a deep sleep. Upon awaking from sleep Adam discovered someone new in the Garden and chose to name her Eve. Although there was nothing involved then like we are accustomed today; this in some belief was the start of marriages. Some today may argue that they were not married they just