Why is it that certain people seem to have the best lives? Why is it that certain types of people seem to move up faster in their jobs? Why is that certain people seem to have better marriages than others? Are they more talented? Are they just lucky?
Statistics show that people who have an authentic faith in Christ and strong relational skills are the most likely to succeed in every area of their lives.
Authentic Faith
People who take their Christian faith seriously, meaning that they pray daily, read the Bible and attend worship services regularly have the most vibrant jobs, marriages, and relationships. In the New York Times, Wilcox and Nock write, “It turns out that the happiest of all wives in America are religious conservatives…Fully 73% of wives who hold conservative gender values and attend religious services regularly with their husbands have higher-quality marriages.”
Even some in the media are coming to understand that men and women who hold conservative values and a vibrant robust faith have the happiest lives! Committed churchgoers, people who regularly pray have the least levels of firings and divorce of any other group in America (Nancy Pearcey The Toxic War on Masculinity, page 37).
Nominal Christians
But it’s also true that people who say they are Christians but do not regularly practice their faith are the worst in their jobs and marriages. Such people have the most abuse, infidelity, and divorces. Even more than secular non-Christians. Nancy Pearcey writes, “Nominal Christians (those who don’t practice their faith regularly) have a 20% higher rate of divorce than secular men…Nominal Christians report the highest rate of any group for violence in the home” (Ibid, page 37).
Emotional Intimacy
Nancy Pearcey continues, “The primary function for families is to build relationships. For better or worse, emotional intimacy is now the main glue hold families together…We are asking for more from marriage than at any other time in history” (Ibid, page 39). Emotional intimacy is the key to happiness in every area of a person’s life.
Weak relational skills are the undoing of many. We are just not taught or mentored in how to build our relational abilities, yet it’s the people who have developed strong relational skills that find happiness, joy, and peace in their jobs and families. More on this next time.
Pastor Steve
