15 Major Reasons Why Marriages Fail

There are major reasons why marriages fail. Any marriage that fails is a result of one factor or several factors. These factors can be deliberately or indeliberately

Everyone gets married hoping to live happily ever after. I have never seen anyone getting married hoping to fail, everyone gets married to succeed but, unfortunately, that is not always the case as many marriages end up in divorce while some are bedevilled with a lot of crises.

Alarming Statistics

According to a recent study by the San Diego family law attorneys of Wilkinson & Finkbeiner, Every 42 seconds, there is one divorce in America, which equates to 86 divorces per hour, 2,046 divorces per day, 14,364 divorces per week, and 746,971 divorces per year. It is worrisome!

No one is exempted from this massive global failure of marriages, Nurses, Bartenders, Dancers, Clergy, Farmers, Legislators, Doctors and Surgeons, Law Enforcement, Corrections Workers, Maids, Entertainers, Politicians, etc., are all getting divorced.

There are several major reasons why marriages fail and are crashing or are full of crises. It is important to know these reasons why marriages fail so you can watch out for yourself and be better prepared to ensure you don’t make the same mistakes.

Someone said, when you walk in the footprints of successful people, you are walking into your success. What happens when you walk on the footprints of failures? You will fail!

Major Reasons Why Marriages Fail

1. Lack of Commitment

According to the study, lack of commitment contributes 73% to the major reasons why marriages fail. A lot of people want to enjoy marital benefits without marital commitment.

Marriage comes with commitments and some of these commitments are; faithfulness, care, love, respect, emotional support, financial support, physical support, mental support, protection, etc. The failure to commit in these areas is one of the major reasons why marriages fail.

2. Lack of knowledge

The scripture says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…” The Almighty God was the one speaking here. His people were destroyed because they were ignorant. Ignorance leads to destruction.

Lack of knowledge is one of the major reasons why marriages fail. This lack of knowledge is because people are not interested in learning about marriage and how it works.

People go to school and spend years studying how to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, etc., except for marriage. Tell me why they will not fail. You cannot succeed in what you are ignorant about.

What is marriage? What are your expected roles as a man and woman and as parents? How do you communicate with each other? How do you treat your partner? How do you resolve conflicts? What are the differences between a man and a woman? How does a woman react to issues different from a man?

3. Lack of Character

Bad character is one of the reasons why marriages fail. No matter how beautiful, handsome, wealthy, connected, or famous someone is, if he or she has a bad character, his or her marriage will fail because you live with character and not with beauty or handsomeness.

Many men who are alcoholics, spendthrifts, womanizers’, violent, etc., have crashed their marriages as a result of these vices. No marriage will survive with bad character.

4. Lack of Maturity

According to the study, getting married too young contributes 46% to the reasons why marriages fail. I would rather say it’s a lack of maturity.

One can be young and mature while one can be old but behaves like a baby. Maturity is not about age, it’s the ability to handle responsibilities.

So lack of maturity is also another factor that causes marriages to fail. Majorly, lack of financial, emotional, and mental maturity. Maturity is a fundamental requirement that prepares one for marriage.

5. Lack of Conflict Management Skills

You will have conflicts and arguments in your marriage. This is a fact. Most importantly, how well you handle these conflicts and arguments will determine whether or not your marriage will continue to exist.

Unfortunately, many married people lack conflict management skills. Consequently, whenever there is a conflict, they fight dirty. This led to the end of many marriages.

The study said that too many arguments are one of the reasons why marriages fail as it’s responsible for 56% of it.

6. Lack of God factor

The scripture says a 3 fold cord is difficult to break. God is the Third Cord that binds a man and his wife together. Without Him, the equation of marriage will never be balanced.

God is the Custodian and Inventor of marriage. You can do marriage without Him. Because the God factor is lacking in many marriages we are experiencing a high rate of marriage failures. Get God involved in your marriage if you want to succeed.

7. Demonic Manipulations

The Bible says that the whole world is under the influence of the devil, the evil one. (1 John 5:19)

In other words, the spiritual world controls the physical world. As a matter of fact, the spiritual realm is more real than the physical realm.

Some of the things you see happening in many marriages are a result of demonic and spiritual orchestrations. You will see a husband and a wife quarrelling for no reason at all. It’s not ordinary.

The devil doesn’t want to see good marriages because good marriages will give birth to good children and good children will give birth to good societies. The devil does not want that. This is one of the reasons why marriages fail.

8. Lack of preparation

Lack of preparation is responsible for 41% of the reasons why marriages fail. You cannot succeed in the things you don’t prepare for.

Success in marriage is not by accident or luck. Success in marriage is a result of adequate preparation, all other things being equal.

Lack of financial preparation, lack of emotional preparation, lack of physical preparation, lack of mental preparation, etc., are all responsible for the reasons why marriages fail. When preparation is lacking, the marriage has been prepared to fail.

9. Lack of Compatibility

According to the research, lack of compatibility contributed to 44% of the reasons why marriages fail.

When there is no alignment in views on issues, values, pursuit, personality, health, vision, interests, purpose, convictions, etc., there will be a problem.

10. Unrealistic Expectations

The Bible says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12 NLT)

Many people are entering into marriage with a lot of hopes and expectations. Unfortunately, some of these expectations are unrealistic and can never be fulfilled.

This is a constant source of conflict in many marriages and sadly, many marriages have crashed as a result. Your partner will not always make you happy. Your partner will not always be there for you. Stop expecting too much.

11. Lack of Effective Communication

Communication is the lifeblood of every relationship. Without communication, a relationship will die a natural death.

Communication is basically an exchange of information between two people. When it comes to communication, there is a what(the information), a how(tone of your voice, choice of words), and a when(timing) to talk.

Sadly, many couples don’t know how to communicate with one other and this has led to the end of many marriages.

12. Getting Married for the Wrong Reasons

There is always a motive behind the actions of people. People get marr

ied for various reasons but unfortunately, most of these reasons are wrong and this is responsible for the reasons why marriages fail.

When you get married because you want to have children, what happens when the children are not forthcoming? When you get married because of sex when you are sexually satisfied or unfulfilled, what happens next? When you get married because of money, what happens when the money finishes? When you get married because of beauty or handsomeness when the faces are covered with wrinkles what happens?

13. Getting Married to the Wrong Person

Another reason why marriages fail is that people are getting married to the wrong people. When you get married to the wrong person your marriage will not last.

This is why it is important to ensure that you are getting married to the right person. For more information on this, read this article: Who is the right kind of person to marry?

14. Infidelity

Infidelity is 55% responsible for the reasons why marriages fail. It is becoming increasingly difficult to be faithful in marriage.

To know how to stay faithful in your marriage, please read this article: 5 Ways To Stay Faithful In Marriage

15. Abuse or Domestic Violence

Abuse or Domestic Violence is one of the reasons why marriages fail. Many people are leaving their marriages because of one form of abuse to another.

There are different forms of abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, economic abuse, mental abuse, etc.

The point is abuse is one of the reasons why marriages fail. If you’re abusive or in an abusive marriage, it’s only a matter of time before it hits the rock if nothing is done about it.

This list is not exhaustive. There are other reasons why marriages fail. There is selfishness, over familiarity, lack of respect, anger issues etc. I believe what we have treated so far is enough to guide you and better prepare you for your marriage.

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