Marriage Moats-Looking Ahead

Published: Tue, 01/04/11

Marriage Moats

Caring for Marriage

Who would have thought? Not me. The founder of Chick Fil-A was a pioneer in marriage education?

Truett Cathy walked up to the stage for his Smart Marriage Impact Award, with his tiny, silent wife a few steps behind him. Both were in their eighties, and clearly did not want all this attention.

They were being recognized for their forward thinking. As the first company to offer its employees marriage education as part of the package to keep them healthy, he was on to something. He did it from his heart, long before the research came out about what happens to a person's productivity, absenteeism and body when his or her marriage starts to unravel. He also believes that people should spend Sundays with their families, so his restaurants are never open that day.

I hope it catches on. It is already becoming more common to have insurance that covers physical health, not just disease. It clearly makes financial sense to prevent diabetes, or heart attacks rather than to treat them.

It makes sense to invest in marriages too, long before they slip into dis-ease. I still remember a friend whose marriage was beyond repair, sending us a check for $400.

"Spend it on your marriage. Keep it strong. Don't end up like me." This was years ago, before I even knew what investing in my marriage looked like. But it just happened to coincide with a marriage retreat we had been invited on that carried a price tag of..... $400.

That was before the twins were born, and our son was diagnosed with autism. Maybe it has something to do with why our marriage survived those rocky years. I have no desire to go back and find out.

Photo by Chara Odhner