The Sean McDowell Show - Is Cohabitation Wise? The Data Might Surprise You.

Episode Date: July 25, 2025

Is living together before marriage really setting couples up for success? Today, Scott Rae and I dive into a revealing sociological report from the Institute for Family Studies, unpacking why cohabitation often leads to less stability, not more. We'll explore the impact of cohabitation on marriage, children, and long-term trust, while offering a biblical and practical perspective on what leads to lasting relationships.*Get a MASTERS IN APOLOGETICS or SCIENCE AND RELIGION at BIOLA (https://bit.ly/3LdNqKf)*USE Discount Code [SMDCERTDISC] for 25% off the BIOLA APOLOGETICS CERTIFICATE program (https://bit.ly/3AzfPFM)*See our fully online UNDERGRAD DEGREE in Bible, Theology, and Apologetics: (https://bit.ly/448STKK)FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter: https://x.com/Sean_McDowellTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sean_mcdowell?lang=enInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmcdowell/Website: https://seanmcdowell.org

Two out of three Americans believe living together sets you up for lasting relational marriage and success. How prevalent is cohabitation today? How does living together impact the chances for a successful marriage? So if you're in a cohabiting relationship and you're disagreeing or you're arguing about something, there's a sense of like, I could be out the door. I'm gone. Look at these questions and a whole lot more. As Sean and I discuss a new sociological report on cohabitation from the Institute for Family Studies. Do you want this to last? Find a way to make this work. So, Sean, this is an influential report, and we were talking before we started recording.

We just aren't talking about this that much. We seem to be accepting this almost as a given, and I think we sort of given up trying to combat the tide of cohabitation. So tell me about this, a little bit about this report, and what went into it? and how prevalent is cohabitation today? Well, we really saw the American family start to change in the 70s and into the 80s,

whether that was with things like divorce and in this case, cohabitation. Now in many ways, it's become the norm. Now, just some of the stats, I want to read this and slow down to make sure that people really grasp this. According to a recent Pulse Pew study, the number of adults 18 to 44, who have ever cohabited cohabitated has surpassed the share who has ever been married so if you isolate those two more have cohabited than married now to be clear too that that includes people who may have cohabited just for a short period of time sure or you know maybe cohabited before marrying the person it includes everybody that's a big tent bottom line more have cohabited than individually

been married but fair enough 65% of americans believe living together before marriage will improve the odds of relationship success two out of three americans believe living together sets you up for lasting relational marriage and success what shocks me and i use that word selectively is 41 percent of at least self-identified christians believe cohabitation is acceptable even without marriage plans four out of 10 i can't imagine those are Bible-believing church-going evangelicals, but I don't know. Seventy-one percent of Christians believe it's acceptable. Well, let me ask you a question on that.

Just when's the last time you heard anything preached where this is even an incidental point of application? I don't think I've ever heard a sermon talk about cohabitation once anywhere that I can remember. Have you? Never. Not even once. Never. So in some ways, your point is, why should we be surprised by this? Precisely. That's a great point. Now, in America, 70% of couples live together before marriage. So this is by far the norm for couples. And then here's an interesting wrinkle to this is by 12 years of age, which is my youngest son's age, 40% of American children will have spent part of their lives in a cohabiting relationship. Now, we'll come back to this, but why does that

matter? Because cohabiting relationships are far less stable than married relationships. This issue matters in the church and beyond. Yeah, much easier to get in and out of. And I think we'll come back to that a little bit more on the impact that has on kids or can have on kids. Now, I think we need to be fair to, I mean, some, you know, some cohabitation arrangements are actually okay for kids, but some are not. Exactly. So that needs a little nuance thing, but we'll talk more about that. So let's be really clear right from the start. What's a biblical view of cohabitation? Okay, so this study we're looking at is not studying the theology in the Bible. It's looking sociologically, and there's important data there. How I speak to

a Christian, of course, cohabiting goes back to God's design for what marriage is laid out in the garden. God makes them male and female, says multiply, fill the earth. And in Janus 2, it says what? A man leaves his father and his mother clings to his wife, and the two shall become one. So there's a sense of separation from the household, and not even just physically, they might have shared a physical household, but your legal identity and ties, you leave one household, bond with the other in marriage, and then that becomes the appropriate avenue, so to speak, for sexual behavior. Now, I'm assuming in cohabitation there's sexual behavior. What I don't mean by cohabitation is if somebody owns a house and they're renting out

different rooms and a boyfriend and a girlfriend are in completely separate rooms in the same house, that might be more of an issue of wisdom than it is an issue of cohabiting. I remember some really well-known apologist last name McDowell. Your father talking about that. Really? Yeah, that exact scenario, and he said, my friends, even Jesus would have had trouble with that situation. Really? That's super-inching.

I haven't heard that. So it's a point of wisdom, right? What we make by hell cap cohabiting is you are living together, same place, in the vast majority of circumstances. Same place, same bed. Sexually active. And the Bible is very clear that all sexual activity outside of... of a marriage, which is one man, one woman for life is wrong. So data aside, biblically and theologically faithfulness would be against cohabitation. All right. So what do you say to,

let's say you have a Christian couple who, you know, maybe a student here who, he and his girlfriend or after graduation, or, you know, they're thinking about moving in together because they can, you know, two can live cheap as, you know, as cheaply as one. And as they're doing it to cut costs. It's, you know, they think it's just a wise thing to do that they think, you know, let's see, let's see if we can get some sort of an idea of what married life is going to be like by living together. What would you tell them? Well, one thing we'll come back to is the reasons people cohabit have a lot to do with whether it succeeds in the sense of become a lasting marriage. So that's one piece of this conversation. Let's go to that.

Okay, hold that for a second. Let me come back to that because that's, that's, that's, that's, that's more a part of the report than what I would say distinctly to the Christian couple. Here's what I would say. I would say, I remember being in your shoes and got engaged with my wife and thinking, gosh, we're getting married in six months. We could save a lot of money by moving in together. We're going to get married anyways. What's the big deal?

Like, I remember having those thoughts, and I saw some of my friends do that. What didn't occur to me is years later when I'm married, and now that I travel and I'm gone, what that would have done to my wife's trust and bringing that sin into our marriage, in her mind would have been, oh, wait a minute. He was willing to compromise a little bit, do what was convenient, rather than the right thing. Now he's traveling 10 years later. I wonder if he's doing what's convenient. I wonder if he's really doing the right thing.

That didn't cross my mind when I was 22 years old and engaged with my wife. Now years later, I'm looking back going, oh, my goodness, the kind of choices you make while you're dating, you bring into your marriage. So I remember I got an apartment and at this time in Southern California, I think it was $6 or $800 a month. And it'd probably be four times that right now. At that time, I'm like, this is a big sacrifice. I didn't realize how significant that sacrifice was to my wife to say, you know what, we're going to do this right, I'm going to treat you right, we're going to be patient, and we built our marriage on that. We are celebrating 25 years right now, and I never dreamed that those choices would influence us so deeply. So let's go a little further here. What are some of the reasons the report gives for why people choose to cohabit?

Well, there's a lot of different reasons, and can I come back to that one? Because I think it's important to come to that after we talk about how I talk to students first thinking critically about cohabitation. Go for it. Because I think it'll make more sense once I've laid this out. So I taught high school for 21 years full-time, and this is the first year that I'm not teaching it. And what I would do with my students, and these are – it's a Christian school, but not. all were Christian, most were. And I would just say, all right, let's think of all the reasons why cohabiting with somebody

would benefit them. And let's think of all the reasons why it wouldn't. And we would make a chart. And I would make a list with these students. You know, these are seniors, 17, 18 years old. And I would just wait until they thought of every conceivable reason. So some might be convenience, like you said. Some might be finances.

Some might be, I want to spend more time with this person. and some might be, whatever, it's just easier. So we would walk through all of them. And a common one was I can learn things that I couldn't learn otherwise. That was kind of a big one. And the worst metaphor ever was you wouldn't buy a car if you didn't test drive it. So why don't we test drive this? Students would say that, test drive the relationship.

And so, and then I'd take them one by one. I'd say, okay, is this a good reason? Let's talk about it. Is this a good reason? Let's talk about it. And we would dissect them one by one. And at the end, I would make the point to them, I would say, look, there is nothing that you can learn from living with somebody that you can't learn otherwise that has any relevance to a lasting marriage. I say that very carefully.

There is nothing you can learn from living with somebody that you can't learn otherwise that has any significant. for a lasting marriage. So why do it? Now, with that said, here's what the Institute for Family Study shows. And this is what's really significant. Although many believe that living together before marriage will lower their odds of divorce, there's no evidence that this is generally true and a lot of evidence that it is not true. Sociological data.

That is, for decades in the U.S., living together, before marriage has been associated with greater odds of divorce and or lower relationship quality in marriage and not just in a few isolated circumstances and they give some specifics the study says in relative terms the marriages of those who moved in together before being engaged were 48% more likely to end the marriage of those who cohabited after being engaged or already married. And then they walk through, one of the things, they said the group who cohabited after engagement appears similar, if not greater,

risk than those who cohabit before engagement on some important variables. It said, for example, those reported being engaged prior to moving in were as likely, if not more, to report having a child with their spouse before marriage. And that raises other issues, including increased divorce. So bottom line, people move in together for a lot of reasons, and we'll come back to some of those specific ones, but there's nothing you can learn. It doesn't benefit you in the long run. So I would say to these students, I say, look, I've been married for a long time. If you want a lasting, significant marriage built on trust that might involve a little more

sacrifice now than you like, don't move in with this person. Don't do it. It's not for your objective good or for theirs. All right. So let's explore a little bit why that is. What are some of the negative effects that come out of cohabitation that the study showed? I mean, I have a theory myself for why some of the percentage of unsuccessful marriages that come out of that is as high as it is. But what does the report, what does the report suggest? about that. Okay, so here's some of the negative effects of cohabitation. Now, again, we're going to

come back to this because the data is somewhat clear, the reasons why somebody cohabits, whether they're engaged or not will affect some of this data. So this is just including all people that cohabit, even though it could be nuanced. Some of this is, I think, really clear, much higher levels of sexual infidelity. So 2019 Texas Tech Study, the cohabitors, 57% greater likelihood of sexual infidelity compared to married couples. While they were cohabiting? Yes. Those who are cohabiting have that.

Exactly. The National Sex Survey showed cohabiting women eight more times more likely than wives to cheat on their mates. So if you take those who are married women, those who are cohabiting women, those who are cohabiting eight times more likely to cheat than women in a married relationship. That's one example. Another one is domestic violence. The Family Violence Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire says that the overall rate of violence among cohabiting couples is double the rate compared to married couples, and the rate for severe violence is nearly five times greater. Third example, financial resources. Cohabitors are less likely to share financial resources.

It's more like roommates than it is in a married. is the example. They're less like it to save and accumulate wealth, not selfishly, but just for their kids, for their future, for retirement. The National Marriage Project reports that while the poverty rate for children living in a married household is about 6%. It's 31% for children with a cohabiting mother and father. Again, we see the negative effects on children.

Household chores. Men who plan to marry the women he is living with does up to eight hours more of chores. Now, in fairness on this one, if you're cohabiting and you plan to marry that person, you're going to do more chores of somebody who's cohabiting and just testing things out. So that's an important distinction. But they did point out they said 54% of cohabiting relationships have children present. 54%. One third from that relationship. So as a whole, these relationships are less stable, less financially secure.

There's a higher likelihood of sexual infidelity. There's a higher likelihood of domestic violence. Why would we encourage people to cohabit? And again, I'm not saying this is true for all cohabiting relationships, and that it's not true for any married relationships. Retirement where the numbers point, and there's a significant difference, all things considered, between cohabiting relationships

and between married relationships. Those are just some of the negative outcomes. And I think, too, we need to be fair. too, that there is a difference in the statistics from those who are engaged. Exactly. And those who are sort of, you know, not irrevocably, but as best you can do, being engaged, you're committed to the person. And there's a level of, there's a level of commitment going forward that I'm, you know,

I'm not planning on spending my life with anybody else. Now, my theory on this is that, yeah, I've been eager to know. is that when you gohabit with someone, you get all the, all the dailiness of life together. You get the chores. You get making the bed. You get doing the laundry. You get caring for the dogs, if you have them. You get just the sort of the daily stuff of life.

There are a lot of couples, they just sort of slog through it. And, you know, it's not the best part of marriage. to say the least. But what you don't get is the trust that comes with a formal public commitment that you've made to this person. And it has a – the statistics are clear it has a permanency to it that cohabiting does not. And so it seems to me – I think you get – it gives you, you know, all the stuff that you're going to get anyway when you're married. But, you know, but those are things that, you know, honestly, I can wait. I could have waited for those things.

Sure, sure. But it doesn't give me the, I think the one thing that is the glue that's going to hold a long-term commitment together. So, anyway, that's my theory. Interesting. I've got a couple thoughts and then tell me what you think about this. So to take that, I would, the angle I would say is when people are living together, they think they're getting a sense of what marriage is actually like. They think, oh, this is a simulation that helps me know what the real thing will be like.

But it's lacking the element that you're talking about, which is permanence, which actually changes everything. So if you're in a cohabiting relationship and you're disagreeing or you're arguing about something, there's a sense of like, I could be out the door. I'm gone. When you're married, there's a sense of, like, I have committed to you, and I need to find a way to make this work amidst our disagreement. That changes everything about the conflict. That's why people living together think they're getting a simulation, but they're not getting a simulation, so they get into the real thing and they feel like it's a setup. That's one piece.

Maybe they're getting the AI version of it. they could be. I don't know exactly what that means, but they could have errors included. Oh, fair enough. Now, I think there's a couple other things. One other one is oftentimes when people are living together, there's a difference in expectation that's not true when couples are married. Now, for example. Well, if you're living together, oftentimes girls, women will view living together as a step towards commitment. Men tend to view it to see if they want to And so if you have different expectations, you're going to shape conflict differently. You're going to treat each other differently.

You're just going to run up against I thought you would do this and I thought you'd do that based on unstated expectations. Now, of course, one way around that, and the data does go up towards increasing is if somebody is engaged first, then there's at least a common level of commitment when they move in together and decreases the chance significantly that that relationship will not last when they get married. But that's one reason that's there. And I'd still say, if you're engaged, you're not married yet.

You haven't given the ring. You haven't legally tied your names, done the public ceremony. So there's still a difference that's there. The license has not been registered. It has not been registered illegally. The other piece that I would add to this that I think adds to it is people think when you move in together, you're getting a better sense of what this person is like. I mean, when I ask students all the time, they're like, well, I can,

just see if they put the toothpaste on or not. I can see what they're like at two in the morning when they're tired. I can just see these kinds of things, and I'm in a better position to know if this is someone I should marry. I actually think it's the opposite. I actually think when you're living that close, it makes it harder to break up. One reason is you've kind of already committed, so it becomes easy to just excuse these things away. And another reason is if you're sexually active, there's chemicals in the human body that create bonding like oxytocin and vasopressin. So if you're in the same house with somebody and you're sleeping with somebody, your body is like we become one. And so rather than having an appropriate distance where you can

look at somebody's character, see if you want to commit, your body's telling you, well, you love this person and you're already in a house or this person and excuse more things away. So I actually think the proximity makes it harder to have an objective assessment of this person's character and if you should marry him than if you were a part. So what do you think? I'm curious to hear your take on this. You know, you pointed out already that culturally the views of cohabiting have changed radically in the last 30 years. and I wonder if it's viewed I mean I think culturally it's viewed is basically morally neutral you know I don't think anybody's going to argue the you know the merits or demerits it just it just is what it is

culturally I wonder if you do you think that the negative things that come out of cohabitation that the study shows will decrease as people consider it more just kind of a normal thing that couples do before they get married? I read quite a few people who make this argument, that the reason there's negative outcomes is kind of the stigma against it. And we hear this in the LGBTQ conversation, that the reason that, you know, people suffer with comorbidities is the lack of acceptance in society. So if society becomes more accepting, those kind of sufferings will decrease.

Well, there is a 2019 Stanford study that found no support for the idea that as cohabitation becomes socially accepted, it loses its negative consequences. So they argue that the effects have stayed steady across place and across time. And it's called the cohabitation effect because it seems to be so well known and accepted in the larger academic realm of people who study this. It holds across various countries where living together is practiced widely. So, interesting hypothesis, I'm not aware of the data that backs it up. I'm aware of this 2019 Stanford study that pushes against it.

And I'd also say there's certain things built into our bodies, built into men and built into women that cannot be molded like clay by society. Marriage is a kind of thing. We want a kind of commitment. women want the security of marriage, and acceptance in society is not going to change that. John, I wonder if we could dig a little deeper on one aspect that I didn't see coming in this report. You mentioned it already. One of the negative outcomes is a higher instance of domestic violence in cohabitation as opposed to marriage. What does the study suggest about what accounts for that?

And I'm just curious, what do you think accounts for that? Because that's quite a striking finding in my view. I, to be honest, I am somewhat guessing as I move above my pay grade because I'm not a sociologist or a psychologist. So I hesitate to comment what exactly counts for that. I could guess and throw theories out there. But I think the bottom line is we see a lot of negative effects in cohabitation and so we ask what's the difference between cohabitation and marriage marriage there's a

public commitment marriage there's a promise to somebody marriage there's a uniting of your lives together and for the case especially of men when they get married and start having kids it forces this sense of like oh i'm looking out for myself i've got to care for my kids i've got to care for my wife, and it does something to change a man in some fashion, I think that's a piece of it, but the data behind it, I don't know that I could go any further and explain that. Let me suggest, you know, one of the places I could see cohabited couples pushing back on this is that particularly in state, as most states that have no-fault divorce laws, that, you know, divorce is not nearly as difficult as it was a generation or two ago, where you had to

they had to provide good reasons. And, you know, California was one of the first states in the country to legalize no-fault divorce, and that's the dominoes who just kept falling after that. And so what do you say to the couple who says, you know, I can exit a marriage almost as easily as I can exit a cohabitation agreement? So what's, you know, what's such a big deal about marriage in that regard? because if you're describing it, the permanence of marriage is one of the things that it has going for it and that level of trust that comes with that.

And I get it, you know, on your wedding day, you make all sorts of wild promises, which I tell couples when I marry them, I say, that's the reason we have witnesses here, to bear witness, these wild promises you're making to each other. But, you know, it is just not that hard to get out. of a marriage today. Now, if you've accumulated your property and things like that, sure. And if you have kids, then it's more challenging. But, you know, for a couple with, you know, double income, no kids, you know, you split up your assets, sign the papers, go your separate ways. You know, there's, it's just, it's, it's not that much harder to get out of a marriage today than it is to get out of a cohabitation agreement. Now, granted, in a marriage,

you just can't walk out the door and say, I'm done. sure but I mean for all practical purposes you just get the paperwork in motion and you do essentially the same thing that would be the pushback I'm I'm not a counselor and there's reasons why I don't counsel married couples but what I'll practically do is I'd say okay what do you want in this relationship what do you want do you want this to be a permanent relationship do you want this to last and my suspicion is strongly that both of them do. So should the motivation to not get married, the fact that it's just as easy to get out as it is a cohabiting relationship, I wonder if the motivation is not the best here as

opposed to asking, how do we have a long-term relationship that lasts? That's just the question I would try to unpack and I would ask them about. And I think here's the thing I say more to students than I do to older couples. I'll say, look, if somebody says, I want to commit to you and I want to love you. I just want to get married. It's just a marriage certificate. I'll say, if it's just a marriage certificate before you get married, then it's just a marriage certificate after you get married.

So why not get married? There's something. That's exactly right. The data is there. Now, there could be couples that are an exception. Fine. Of course there are. But if you're going into this and you're trying to have the most relational success as possible,

make the highest promise you can. and to this other person, regardless of how easy it is to get out the back door, and that's what we call marriage. Okay. Good. You don't have to be a therapist to dig down. That's a really good answer to that. I mean, I've often told people, if it's just a piece of paper, then what's holding you back

from getting married? Because I assure you, for most women, it's not just a piece of paper. that may be a little strong. I'd say for a sizable portion of women who view that differently. Yeah, who view that differently. It's not just a piece of pay, because it embodies a sense of commitment,

that you're going public with this. And even in the scriptures, when it says, you know, leave your mother and father, that's a public, sort of communal witnessed leaving that's in view. It's not just two people

decide, well, you know, we're out of here to start our own household. You know, it's a, it has a public component to it that's really important because, again, because you're making some pretty crazy promises to each other. And it's a good thing that we have people around to testify to that in the future when you may come to doubt those things. As you're saying this, here's probably what I would say. Because I think you're right that a girl is probably going to be far more likely to want the marriage certificate, all things considered than the man.

So I might say to the guy, I'd say, do you love her? Yes. Do you want what's best for her? Are you committing to her through the thick and the thin for your lifetime? Turn to her and say, if you believe him, what is the best way he can express this to you? Now, if she says, I don't need a marriage certificate, then there's nothing I could say to convince that couple anyways. Chances are she's going to say, I want the certificate.

And then either he goes, I'm out of here, which means he didn't love her, or he realizes this is the way of really showing love. That's how I navigate it. The one thing I'd add to that is I would say, do you respect her enough to give her what she wants and what she feels like she needs in order to totally commit to this and make it a success in the long term? Because I think you can make an argument, I think, that cohabiting without commitment, is ultimately, I think, disrespectful to the woman.

I agree with that. And she may not ever express it like that, but I think if they're honest, I think a lot of women would echo that sentiment. All right, here's some, maybe the last question on this. I've got a couple we got to talk about, because we hinted at it, but we never got to it. So how do most people end up cohabiting?

This is actually really important. Okay. I thought we'd cover that. Didn't cover that. No, this is actually really important. So most people, 64% said they slid into living together and didn't really make a decision together as a couple. So two-thirds, it's more of just kind of like a default, non-thoughtful, intentional decision. Only 36% of response, of course, in this study, said they talked about it and made a clear decision.

now of those who slide into cohabitation have a 34% chance of marital dissolution compared to 21% of those who decide so if we set Bible and theology aside which you and I would say you never should and we're just saying the success of a cohabiting relationship two-thirds just kind of oh let's save money fine let's do it don't sit down and even talk through with any intentionality and common commitment and common goals. And so the study we're talking about said, we know that couples who have more relationship-driven reasons for important transitions like marriage or cohabitation tend to fare better than those having event-driven external

reasons. So if the reasons are save money and convenience, that's external. If it's more, I want to spend time with you, I want to be committed to you, then it shapes the relationship. So back at the beginning, when we're making a distinction between cohabiting couples and why they move in together, the reasons are huge. And this one, I always brought this up with students because they had to have the test driving example, is this is a direct quote from the Institute for Family Studies.

Moving in together to test a relationship might be a uniquely bad reason to cohabit. so not all reasons that people co-habit are equal. So what are the top ones? This is where the chart in this study was helpful. 44% said spend more time with a partner. 17% said test the relationship. 22% said it made sense financially. 17% said it was inconvenient to live apart.

So some of those motivations, now what they tie is, how do these motivations fare in terms of marital dissolution? For those who said it made sense financially, 40% more likely to have marital dissolution. Wow. So ironically, if someone is like, I'm going to save money by living together, they end up losing a lot more money and making things worse for their life because that's a bad motivation. Testing the relationship, 33%. The lowest one was to spend more time together. So if somebody is motivated and says, I really care about you, I want to move towards commitment. Of course, as Christians, we would say, don't cohabit together.

There still are some negative outcomes you can and likely will experience. But that's a far better reason than just saving money to do so. Fair enough. And so, yeah, I think what's helpful is that the reasons actually have a lot to say about the impact that it will have on marital satisfaction and marital permanence. That's right. Okay. Now, one final question. Sure. Okay.

I actually did. Never mind. What advice do you have for young couples who are thinking about getting married? And this is really, I think, a helpful way to put this. What perspective do you have now that you didn't have or might not have had when you were in your 20s thinking about this yourself? here's what i would say if you want to have a successful lasting marriage don't move in together before you're married period hands down don't do it and what i see now what i shared earlier is how the sacrifice you make at this stage the choice you make at this stage the priorities at this stage is a kind of basis in a foundation you are setting your marriage up for

for the long haul. Don't move in with this person. And second, you know, I'm in 25 years of being married, and I love it. I hope I get 25 more plus with my wife. But it's a long time. This is a long commitment. Take your time, get counsel of those around you who are wise, who've been married for a long time, and just know that the biblical plan is for the best. God's design is not to steal your fun, It's not to cost you financially, it's to quite literally set you up for marital and relational success, and it's for your good. I think we could close in prayer and go home on that one. So, yeah, as, you know, my wife and I, we celebrated 40 years last year.

Amazing. And looking forward, I don't know if we'll get 40 more, but I'm not so sure about that. Good luck. Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen. But, no, I think we, I think we would both, you know, we would both suggest that the fact that we did things the way we did has helped set us up for, you know, a long-term success in marriage. Amen. Amen. All right.

I hope you all have found this helpful. Sean, if people want to get hold of this study, can they just Google the Institute for Family Studies report on cohabitation? Yeah. I think that's the best. title is, I'll give you a specific title here. It is What's the Plan, Cohabitation, Engagement, and Divorce. Came out in April, 2023 by the Institute for Family Studies, and it's available online. Let's say, we'll try, we'll put a link in the, when we post this. We'll put a link to that study. If you want to read a little bit more on this, we'd encourage you. If you're going to do a deep dive

into the data, go for it, Sean, my resident data nerd. God bless you for digging, digging deep into that. We hope you found this helpful. If you have questions on this or other subject or comments you want to give to us, email us at think biblically at biola.edu. That's think biblically at biola.edu. Be sure, if you're viewing this, be sure to subscribe to our audio podcast, the Think Biblically podcast, and feel free to share it with a friend. We really appreciate you viewing and listening to this. We hope you found it helpful, and we encourage you to join us on Friday for our weekly cultural update. In the meantime, think biblically about everything.