The focus of this paper will be a reflection of the stages Spong points out in chapter twelve and the journey a person has to go through when dealing with the events. The event of divorce is not pointed out in this chapter, but it was discussed when I mentioned these stages to friends. As I have been reading through the book, “Living in Sin” by John Shelby Spong it has many interesting views on the topic of life as people go through marriage and divorce which I have compared to discussions on this topic with friends. The topic of divorce with my friends is a sensitive topic, but I’m glad they are open and honest about the subject to help compare to John Shelby’s book.
The first topic of the journey is how life before marriage …show more content…
This seems to be the stage when everyone is happy and on the same page with raising kids and a family. In this stage many times a breakdown happens in the family in which a divorce may happen. I asked friends to help describe the happy feeling of this stage and the other side of this positive feeling. Most enjoy the feeling of coming home to a family and being able to depend on each other for help. The success of the family being together is what makes them happy and helping the kids grow into great people. From the negative side of this story is the lack of communication and not being on the same page as each other when dealing with family issues. The main issue is money or lack of commitment to the success of building a family. Some people I have talked to go through the marriage being unhappy and remain in the relationship until the kids are out of the house. Others I know, the partner passes away leaving the family on its own. Having friends discuss this was interesting because it exposed why a person should not stay in this relationship. If the stage is to build a successful, loving family, it will not be accomplished if both partners can’t agree or lack communication. It’s best to separate at this point and not wait until the kids are out of the house or until someone passes away. This is when the next stage occurs in a person’s life which can be after the family is no longer the