I was sitting in the doctor’s office when I saw the full page ad on the back of a magazine for an upcoming television show entitled “The Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce.” The photo featured a woman flipping off the viewer with her naked ring finger. The sales hype implied that life begins when marriage ends, that, for women at least, divorce is the first step on the road to self-actualization. It made me sick to my stomach.

Sure, divorce happens. So do traffic fatalities. Both are realities about which we ought to mourn, rather than celebrate. But our culture has bought Satan’s lie that marriage somehow stands in the way of a woman’s freedom and liberty.

There’s nothing glamorous or fulfilling about divorce. Ask any divorced mother struggling to keep her children out of poverty on a single income. Ask any child who’s become the rope in a tug-of-war custody battle between his parents.

The truth is, Satan hates marriage because it is a threat to him and his agenda. He loves to steal, kill, and destroy. God, on the other hand, wants husbands and wives to stand united, giving preference to one another in honor. Instead of each one selfishly pursuing his or her own way, God wants to join us together as one flesh.  Husbands and wives who seek God’s will above their own have the potential to be exponentially stronger together than they could ever be apart.

It’s time we adopted God’s attitude and turned our backs on the lies of our culture. I say, along with Jesus, “What God has joined together, let no man separate.”