In Part 1 of Testosterone Trap Trauma Therapy, we examined the various dangers to boys and young men going from adolescence to young manhood. It was a pretty dim picture with males going through what I call the Male Danger Zone of ages 15 to 25 having a much higher chance of death from homicide, suicide, drug overdoses, and car accidents than females of the same age group. The good news though is that as always God has provided a better pathway. That better pathway I have named Marvelous and Magnificent Marriage.
ROMANCE LOWERS TESTOSTERONE
It is extremely important that most young people get on a pathway that is going to lead to a happy and a lifelong marriage. For their safety and well-being sake, this is especially important for males. Excess testosterone is the root of many young men’s physical, emotional, and mental problems. When a young man romantically commits to a young woman his testosterone drops. If they get married, it drops further. If the couple, then has children his testosterone will drop even further. In some research fathers have shown testosterone levels that are 50% lower unmarried men with no children. As we learned in Part 1, constant high testosterone levels are bad for any species of God’s creation. An example cited were deer who only have high testosterone and antlers during the fall rut each year.
In the past 60 years there have been forces in our society that have tried to push us away from a culture where premarital chastity was honored and reinforced by societal norms. In 1960 for instance, in our 20 to 29-year-old population, there were three times more that were married. For that matter in 1960, 75% of all of those over 18 and older were married. One other related telling statistic is that in 1960, 5% of children were born out of wedlock. By 2010, 40% of our children were being born without the benefit of their parents being married.
FATHER PRESENCE IS HUGE
This situation where more and more of our children are growing up in homes headed mostly by single mothers is helping to lead to many of the negative social situations in our society. Both boys and girls need parents as strong role models. Because of the explosion of testosterone at puberty for young men, during which they experience an increase of 30 times the levels of what they had as boys, and this all happens within two years, the need for strong male role models in their father’s is an imperative. If they don’t get this life experience, then often times they will look for it elsewhere. The females in the family, and especially sisters, also provide important lessons on what girls are like in a safe and nonthreatening environment. Young men whose first experience with similar age females is with trying to date young women often do not know how to relate to them and scared to even try.
MARVELOUS AND MAGNIFICENT MARRIAGE TO THE RESCUE!
For all of these and many more reasons Marvelous and Magnificent Marriage acts as excellent therapy for Testosterone Trap Trauma and provides safety for the Male Danger Zone. Marriage is Testosterone Trap Therapy for males. It protects them from the Male Danger Zone through the aforementioned lowering of their testosterone levels, but it also focuses them on good things. Marriage molds men into producers, providers, and savers. Married men are more committed to the workforce, they have fewer addictions, they commit less crime, and they are less likely to become crime victims themselves. They also have better health and are less prone to accidents.
Then the Lord God said, it is not good for man to be alone, I will make a helper corresponding to him. Genesis 2:18 CSB
In Genesis we read that God recognized that it is not good for man to be alone. Being married helps a man on so many different levels. Brides bring with them into the marriage a natural ability to create and maintain social networks. Husband’s benefit from this mightily. When divorce happens that network generally goes with the wife. The result of this and many other factors makes married men have better immune systems, have lower levels of depression and stress, less likely to commit suicide or murder. In fact, married men are 250% less likely to die prematurely then divorced men from all causes! This is a great example of Natural Lifestyle Matching because this pattern of young men and young women finding each other, falling in love, getting married and having a family has repeated itself for thousands of generations.
Even so, some young men having escaped the Testosterone Trap earlier, have a tendency over time to seek extramarital relationships. God’s wise design for Marvelous and Magnificent Marriage with all its benefits stands the test of time though. Males would do well to keep the wisdom of the Bible as their unfailing guide for their lives.
Let your fountain be blessed and take pleasure in the wife of your youth. A loving deer, a graceful doe-let her breasts always satisfy you; be lost in her love forever. Proverbs 5:18-19 CSB
As our Creator, God knows us, and especially our challenges, so well.