Is marriage really worth all the work it takes?

And this is the real lie. The real lie is that we've been told we don't have to work for marriage. And the reality is both husbands and wives have to work incredibly hard at marriage. Marriage is a very difficult endeavor for all of us who are married. It takes a lot of work to stay married. It takes a lot of work to have a happy marriage. It takes a lot of self sacrifice, a lot of giving, a lot of servitude to your spouse, in order to create the environment where both of you are taken care of, because both of you are looking to take care of each other. When you create a marriage around that, and put all your time and your energy into making the best possible marriage, guess what, it also happens to be the most profitable as well. There is nothing that will kill a person's wealth, and you can look this up, as much as divorce will. Divorce absolutely decimates people's financial wealth, and in particular it hits women incredibly hard. So if we think about a society where people are constantly being told that you can get the easy way out, that you can skip the steps, that you can not invest in character and you don't have to work hard for your marriage and all of these other things, it is complete and utter and total nonsense. The reality is that marriage is hard work. But for those who engage in it with real love and sincerity, who put Jesus Christ as the focus of their marriage, guess what, they get paid off in every single way, both in the love and the intimacy that they share, and also in the longevity of the marriage and the financial well being. They trade all of their quote unquote peak life for each other, to benefit each other, to make each other stronger, to make even retirement a possibility. That's why people who are in marriage have the greatest amount of cumulative wealth when they actually come time for retirement. So they've spent all their life working hard to build a family, to propel their children forward, to do something truly deep and enriching, and then at the end of it they are most likely to have the reward both in this life and, I would easily argue, in the age to come. If you want to have a good and God pleasing life, stay away from anything that debases, degrades or destroys your soul. There is no profitability in eternity, but there's no profitability in this life either. It is a total scam of the devil. It is a scam of people trying to trick you into the degradation of the human person. Real love, fulfillment and joy is a marriage based on cultivating the holiness of Jesus Christ, the love for your children, the love for your spouse, and that longevity. God will bless it, and in that blessing there will be a tremendous return that is far exceeding just the goodness of this life, but goes into all of eternity, because God sees all the good work of the martyrdom of marriage.