For those who have just returned from another planet, let me tell you about the ABC TV series called Castle. Richard Castle is a mystery writer who works with the NYPD. Detective Kate Beckett is the female lead and Castle’s fiancé.
In last week’s episode, Beckett, with arms around Castle’s neck, is pleading with him about not becoming a boring couple. “Promise me we won’t become one of those couples that have sex only on national holidays.”
“One of those couples….”

Statistics say that 91% of children in a nearby grade school are in divorced homes.

In a recent conversation with one of my friends, he agonized over his church’s stand on and ministry to the divorced. He asked, “Doesn’t anyone stay together anymore?” As much as I liked Kate Beckett’s line, I hurt over Bob’s question.
Michael Martin Murphy describes himself as a cowboy singer. Best known probably for his song, Wildfire. Had we not sung his song, “What’s Forever For?” Bob’s question would have been just that. A rhetorical question. But since I have measured the hurt, the question hit me like a Ninja blade.

So, what’s the glory in living?
Doesn’t anybody ever stay together, anymore?
If love never lasts forever,
What’s forever for?

For several reasons, I don’t watch TV’s Celebrity Wife Swap. We caught a few minutes of celebrity “swap.” Gives me the creeps! When they got to the end where they tell their opinions how they would change the lives of their counterparts, one of the guys indicates he knows he is busted. He is wrapped up with his work and himself with little attention to wife or anyone else. My response was, “I’ll be going to the garage to check the oil in the car, now.”

The working title of my next novel is Napkin Placement. It talks about and lives out four actions for couples to describe a “forever” worth living. It will be an open window so you can see how & what I’m learning.

In her book, Nakedness, (Which I think is still available free from Kindle) Sandra Kristen Moore says,
“I felt like I had a great childhood and didn’t lack anything. I never saw my parents fight or argue, which I later learned was because of their inability to communicate. They secretly struggled until they filed for divorce the day I left for my honeymoon.”
Carole and I have been married a long time. There is still so much to learn. In short hand terms, a good marriage is a covenant marriage—in the biblical definition of the word.

I’m working my way through the questions: am I capable and brave enough of becoming unboring? Change is difficult.
I heard this morning that opening day of the baseball season is being considered as a national holiday. See! God does answer prayer.
D. Dean Benton
Benton Quest House