Divorce—A Sad Word

Divorce is one of the saddest words in the English language, especially for the children of divorcing parents. And this sadness seems to affect a lot more people these days than in previous genera­tions. In the middle of the twentieth century, the divorce rate in the United States was about 25 percent. In the 1960s that figure began to climb to a level approaching and sometimes exceeding 50 percent. It is likely that up to half the students in your school are from homes touched by the pain of parental separation or divorce. You may be reading these words right now because you are one of those students.

Divorce is sad and painful because it chips away at the very foundation of your early life. As a defenseless infant and young child, you looked to your parents as your primary source of love and security. That's how God designed the fam­ily to function. Even with the increased inde­pendence that comes with adolescence and young adulthood, you still derive a certain degree of security from a home where both parents are present and getting along. When that security base is disrupted because of separation or divorce, it will affect you in ways that may be dif­ficult to understand and deal with.