And the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." Genesis 2:18

The Center for Disease Control has announced the figure: unwed mothers account for 40 percent of all babies born in the U.S. Buried in the findings is another statistic: less than one fourth of those births happen to teenagers.

Simply stated, those figures mean many women -- women who know what they are doing -- have decided marriage and children don't necessarily go hand-in-hand.

Many of these women who have themselves come from broken homes, have decided some men aren't spiritually, emotionally, morally, and financially fit to be fathers. That's understandable. What is not understandable is why these ladies get involved with these guys at all.

What the Center for Disease Control doesn't say is this: children born to single mothers have a much higher incidence of being poor, having behavioral and psychological problems, dropping out of school, and having their own one-parent families.

The Center for Disease Control doesn't say, as Isabel Sawhill of the Brookings Institution said to Congress in 1999, that the increase in single-parent families mostly due to unwed motherhood "can account for virtually all of the increase in child poverty since 1970."

Finally, the Center for Disease Control doesn't say the Lord was right when He decreed men and women were designed to support each other in a life-long commitment to Him and each other.

Most certainly, the world, sin, and Satan do their best to place terrible burdens, problems, and pains upon any family. Without the Savior and the ongoing presence and power of the Holy Spirit, every household will find itself strained to the breaking point.

Still, God's intentions are clear and His blessings are promised to husbands and wives who follow the Savior and try to glorify Him with their lives and at their own family altar. By His grace, may the statistics of such committed Christian men and women also grow and be a witness to our sinful, selfish world.

THE PRAYER: Heavenly Father, many people are following a path of reason that will cause problems for them and their children. Today, I ask You to strengthen Christian homes so all may know the value of husbands and wives who are committed to You and each other. In Jesus' Name, I ask it. Amen.


By God's grace, this devotion is freely shared with you. Still, I don't know all the people who need it or should read it. Won't you forward it to that someone? Just click the "Forward this devotion to a friend" link below. You can also direct them to sign up for the DD's at: http://www.lhm.org/email/register.asp.

In Christ I remain His servant and yours,

Today's Bible Readings: Deuteronomy 23-25    Luke 6:27-49

To Download Devotion MP3 to your computer, right click here and select "Save Link As" or "Save Target As" or "Download Linked File As"