It looks like that old saying, “the family that prays together stays together” is true. We have some new research today showing prayer and worship are keys to a lasting marriage.
A fresh look at data from a 2006 National Survey of Religion and Family Life reveals that a couple’s religious practices – whether they go to church and pray together regularly – influence whether their relationship will last. These findings were presented in a research brief published by the Institute for Family Studies.
W. Bradford Wilcox, co-authored the brief. He said “We see that couples who share religious attendance and even more so pray together enjoy high levels of relationship quality.”
In regard to church attendance, Wilcox and co-author Nicholas H. Wolfinger note “big differences depending on whether it’s the man or the woman who attends”. They found “couples who both attend religious services, or those in which the men alone attend, were the happiest.”
According to Wilcox and Wolfinger, “shared prayer is a ‘stronger predictor of relationship quality’ than other religious factors, race, education, age, sex, or region.”
Wilcox added, “Prayer may be particularly powerful because it is a way for couples to address the things that bind them together and also that concern them. Praying together likely fosters a sense of communion in the relationship, of being united in a deep and profound way and is a ‘symbol of mutual commitment.’”