Until we don't want to work it out do we part.

Marriage in the United States is in bad shape, according to recent reports by Focus on the Family.

The information, which was released in September 2008, stated that while divorce rates have leveled off and even slightly decreased over the last few years, statistics still show that between 40 and 50 percent of all marriages end in divorce. A similar report, released by the US Census bureau, showed that one in two marriages will fail and that the United States has among the highest divorce rates globally.

The median age for men to get married is 27.4 years of age, with women marrying slightly younger on average at 25.6 years of age. Typically, divorce happens within the first 8 years of marriage. There is also a trend in the United States for people to get married later in life. While 33.8 percent of the population is married between the age of 20 and 34, the married population balloons to 63.7 percent in the 35 to 44 year age range. This means that couples who marry younger and divorce around the eight-year average will likely end their marriage before the 35 to 44 year olds even get married.

Ron Edmondson, a pastor at Grace Community Church in Clarksville, Tenn. says one reason the divorce rate is so high is a general lack of knowledge about marriage, a problem that has always been there. “I share this story all the time, but both my boys have more training to drive than is usual for somebody to be trained to enter into marriage,” he said.

Edmondson said that there are very few solid marriages for couples to learn from any more. This is partly because we have become more mobile and therefore geographically scattered. As people move further away from family, they need to have people with strong marriages to walk along with younger couples, especially in the early, often difficult years, Edmondson said.

He also said that the general cultural acceptance and increasing ease of divorce from a legal standpoint combined with a decreasingly loyal population are contributing factors to such high divorce rates.

Edmondson believes churches should shoulder the responsibility of reducing cases of divorce, and said this needs to begin with good pre-marital counseling. “Churches rarely have anything available. You’re doing good if you get an hour or two of your pastor’s time,” he said. Churches also have to start teaching about healthy marriages, he said. “I don’t think we need to sugar-coat the issues. We need to deal with real problems. Marriage is tough…so we need to address the reality of what’s going on in our society."

Finally, Edmondson said problems in marriage need to be de-stigmatized, encouraging people to work things out. “It’s easier to walk away than to get help,” he said.