《Sermon Illustrations (D~F)》(a compilation) table of contents
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Statistics and StuffBut what does he (Paul) wish them to learn? That no one be puffed up for his own teacher against another, that is, that they be not lifted up with pride on account of their teachers, and do not abuse their names for the purpose of forming parties, and rending the Church asunder. Observe, too, that pride or haughtiness is the cause and commencement of all contentions, when every one, assuming to himself more than he is entitled to do, is eager to have other in subjection to him. John Calvin, Calvin's Commentaries, Vol XX, Baker, 1979, p. 158. DIVORCEFor many years I've publicly challenged the widely-held belief that one of two marriages ends in divorce. It was obviously not true. Some academics incorrectly calculated this ratio by noting that 1.2 million divorces and 2.4 million marriages were reported for 1981. The truth finally prevails. A Louis Harris poll now calls the one-of-two divorce rate a myth. "What was left out is that there are 54 million other marriages that are going on very nicely. By combining ongoing and new marriages in any single year, only 2 percent of existing marriages will end in divorce. A number of academics made a sensational splash out of it." Dr. Lee Salk comments, "This survey is incredibly important. It tells us that TV's Cosby family is depicting a better picture of American family life than anything else." J. Allan Petersen in Homemade, October 1987. 
More and more people seem to forget Henry Ford's sage advice when asked on his 50th wedding anniversary for his rule for marital bliss and longevity. He replied, "Just the same as in the automobile business, stick to one model." Christian Clippings, p. 27.
Fifty years ago parents were apt to have a lot of kids. Nowadays kids are apt to have a lot of parents. E. Lawson.
Divorced couples in Albuquerque, New Mexico, can take advantage of a new business in town. The company is called Freedom Rings: Jewelry for the Divorced. Founded by jeweler and divorcee Lynn Peters, the company makes custom jewelry out of wedding rings. Each customer at Freedom Rings pays a fee, and the ring-smashing ceremony begins--complete with champagne and music. Just before the smashing the M.C. says, "We will now release any remaining ties to your past by transforming your ring--which represents the past--into a token of your new beginning. Now take the hammer. Stop for a moment to consider the transformation that is about to begin your new life. Ready? With this swing let freedom ring!" She then uses a four-pound sledgehammer to whack her emblem of love and fidelity into a shapeless piece of metal. And the ceremony ends. The fact that women are pounding their wedding rings into pendants and men are grinding theirs into golf ball markers doesn't surprise me. We've all heard the divorce statistics. But let's focus on the women for a moment: How many American women stop short of divorce, but would love to make a clean break from their marriage if it were convenient? How many Christian women feel the same way? Brian Peterson, New Man, October, 1994, p. 8.
"Come into the living room, children. We have something we need to tell you." That's how our parents told us they were not going to be together anymore. After they told us they were divorcing, I sat under the table and my mind replayed again and again the words my father said. I didn't know then what it all meant, but I soon learned. After Dad left, I looked through the drawers where he kept his clothes and found an old sweat shirt he left behind. I hid it in my room and kept it for years. I would cling to it when I was lonely for him. My father came back to see us a few times, but his visits became less and less frequent. Finally his visits stopped completely. I always wondered where he went. I wondered if he thought about us very much. I hoped that he did. But I guess I'll never know. H. Norman Wright, Always Daddy's Girl, 1989, Regal Books, p. 86.
Item No. 583B in our Love and War man's files is a report on the bequests to his former wives of the socialite yachtsman Fuller E. Callaway, Jr. It stands as a commentary of the chances for happiness in multiple marriages. He left $100,000 to his first wife, $10,000 to his second, and $1 to his third. L.M. Boyd, Spokesman-Review, July 28, 1992.
I thought of how important the strength of a marriage is to children when I saw a quote by Pete Rose, Jr., recently. The betting scandal his father was in meant little to Petey. He still dwelt on his parents' years-old divorce. His father was remarried with a new child and another on the way. His mother was tending bar in Cincinnati. Petey is a better-than-average big league prospect himself, and athletes at that stage in their careers are usually single-minded and driven. Yet Petey said something like this: "I would trade whatever future I have in big league baseball to see my parents get back together." It was as if he hadn't read the papers, didn't know the truth about his parents' marriage. Pete, Sr. had such an incredible reputation for chasing women, and such nasty, impossible-to-take-back things had been said by each about the other, that no one would give two cents for the possibility of any civility, let alone a reconciliation. And with Pete, Sr., remarried, there's no chance. Yet that comment from little Pete, if he were my son, would haunt me to my grave. Jerry Jenkins, Hedges, Wolgemuth & Hyatt, 1989, p. 128.
Tod had left his wife and children for another woman, but Linda, his wife, refused him a divorce. She said that she still loved him and that he could still love her. One morning, after a night of empty sex and not much sleep, he drove to their house and saw his wife through the window getting the breakfast ready and the children off to school--as he said, "doing what she had to do to keep their life, her life, my life intact." He was overcome with a sense of her commitment to holding together a warm good life. He asked her that day to let him come back, recognizing that she was his very right, and much beloved wife. Reader's Digest, August, 1982.
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