The vows are in place to help emphasize the commitment they are vowing to show to each other. They could also in my opinion help to hold marriages together, not only on the day of saying them to secure your marriage, but in later times to come. If you find your marriage becoming difficult you can just remember the vows you and your partner took and try to stay strong and committed, as you were the day you said them. The vows being a promise to yourselves, others and God means there is a binding nature to them that helps show the reality of marriage and enforce the newly declared love.
The wedding rings are an important part of the ceremony as well. The fact that they are circular is quite symbolic of the unending love and exclusive commitment that each partner is making. Wedding rings made from gold show value. The ring is always placed on the left hand on the finger especially reserved for the wedding ring. This finger is known as the ‘ring finger’ and is on the left hand. The left hand is used so as not to draw attention away from the wedding ring and leave it standing alone. The ring is also used as a means of identification for the committers of marriage. It shows faithfulness and they should always wear their wedding ring. The exchange of the rings is used to show the sealing of the vows or this new covenant between the couple.
Relate and Accord are two groups that are set up to help with marriages and offer counseling. Relate deal with all aspects of marriage such as pre-marriage classes, marriage counseling and post divorce and separation counseling. They also have counseling to offer help to children from broken or braking down marriages. Accord (previously Catholic Marriage Advisory Council) offer marriage counseling as well as information on natural family planning and pre-marriage classes, sex education information etc. They can help married couples and would be of great value to family’s who are having a tough time. The family counseling is free and has a good success but even still our society is not always willing to try and not all marriages can work.
When marriages begin to fall apart not all couples can fix it and it turns to divorce. Divorce, according to ‘The Matrimonial Causes (Northern Ireland) Order 1978’ must only be given when the court is satisfied that the marriage has irretrievably broken down. Once the divorce is given the couple are legally free of each other and aloud to remarry. Divorce is frowned upon by many Christians the church and God. It was said by God, “I hate divorce. I hate it when one of you does such a cruel thing to his wife. Make sure that you do not break your promise to be faithful to your wife.” (Malachi 2:26) The Bible though being as contradictory as ever grants that on special circumstances divorce could be aloud e.g., “a woman… becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her”. (Deuteronomy 24:1) I think that these views on divorce are not suited to everyone and should be impressed upon no one by their family, friends or the church. People who are in a bad marriage that wish to be no longer burdened by it should be aloud to confidently withdraw knowing that they will face no annoyance or hindrance and will be aloud to remarry should the event ever arise again. The Bibles views on remarriage could be shown that, “Man must not separate, then, what God has joined together”. (Mark 10:9) This statement shows that remarriage is wrong, as divorce should not occur in the first place. The churches however contradicting this do offer remarriage as long as the Minister is willing to do so, this will happen in churches such as The Presbyterian, The Methodist and The Church Of Ireland. On the other hand the Roman Catholic Church does not permit remarriage, as it believes a sacrament cannot be dissolved or ended. In which case if a civil divorce is granted the church still believes that in the eyes of God they are still married and cannot remarry. I believe that everyone should be aloud to divorce and remarry but I feel that there should be some limit on the amount of times someone can remarry because if it is a regular occurrence then the person probably doesn’t take marriage seriously enough and should be considered refusal to remarry and they do not value the sanctity of marriage.