Dear Taylor,

First, if the recent reports and rumors about your future are true, I want to sincerely wish you and Travis all the best. Marriage is one of life’s greatest gifts, and I genuinely hope that if this season is leading you toward that covenant, it will be marked by wisdom, joy, and a love that endures.

“May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other.” — 1 Thessalonians 3:12 (NIV)

Like millions of people, I’ve watched your career unfold over the years. You’ve become more than a talented songwriter or performer. Whether you intended to or not, you’ve become someone many young girls and women look up to. In many ways, you feel like a big sister to an entire generation. Your words matter because your life has touched so many.

Jesus said, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded.” — Luke 12:48 (NIV)

That influence is a tremendous gift.

As a wife of 26 years, I wanted to share something that has been on my heart.

Our culture often celebrates romance, passion, excitement, and personal fulfillment above everything else. It tells us that love is primarily about how someone makes us feel. But marriage was never designed to be sustained by feelings alone. It was designed to be held together by something much deeper.

Marriage is a covenant.

It is sacred.

“Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure.” — Hebrews 13:4 (NIV)

It is a lifelong promise where two imperfect people slowly become one through thousands of daily acts of sacrifice, forgiveness, humility, faithfulness, and grace. That covenant becomes the glue that binds a husband and wife together through every season of life. When the emotions fluctuate—and they always do—it is commitment that carries a marriage forward.

“Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” — Ecclesiastes 4:12 (NIV)

Listening to some of your recent music, I couldn’t help but feel concerned. Songs that focus primarily on physical desire or the excitement of another person can unintentionally reduce something incredibly meaningful into something that revolves around pleasure alone. Pleasure is actually only a part of the relationship as a whole, an important aspect, but only a part. Marriages that last a lifetime, are built on commitment to God, each other, the marriage, friendship, trust, and allowing your spouse to speak truth into your life.

Physical intimacy is a wonderful gift, but within marriage it becomes so much more than desire. It becomes trust. Safety. Vulnerability. Service. Unity. It is meant to reflect something deeper—a husband and wife giving themselves fully to one another in every sense of the word.

“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” — Ephesians 5:31 (NIV)

That is a far deeper story than our culture usually tells.

My hope for you isn’t simply that you have a beautiful wedding. My hope is that you have a beautiful marriage fifty years from now.

The reality is that celebrity marriages face extraordinary pressures. Celebrity marriages have a significantly lower success rate than the general population, with failure rates estimated at around 50% to 80% compared to the general population’s 40% to 50%. Famous couples are statistically twice as likely to divorce, often facing a high volume of splits within their very first years of marriage. Constant public attention, demanding careers, travel, temptation, and endless opinions make it difficult to build a quiet, lasting life together. Many famous couples don’t make it, and that reality is heartbreaking—not because they’re celebrities, but because divorce always leaves wounds.

You don’t have to become another statistic.

The strongest foundation either of you could ever build is a shared commitment to something bigger than yourselves.

Jesus said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Mathew 24-27

As a wife, mother, and Christian counselor, I wish you and Travis the very best! May you have a long and beautiful life ahead of you, may you find through this covenant, someone who is greater than you, and Travis, a Father in Heaven who can guide you, protect you, and give you every good thing that money can’t provide.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Blessings, Crystal Ridlon, LPC