Have you ever pondered Why Marriage Matters? Here is a great article by Fawn from Happy Wives Club as she shares about her mission to improve marriages based on research she found supporting why marriage matters! Enjoy!
Fawn writes:
From an early age, I’ve always had a heart for the poor. Those holding their hands out asking for money or food have always struck a chord with me. In my early thirties, I talked a lot about starting a nonprofit to help those living in the streets and even considered participating in an initiative that involved me sleeping on the streets among the homeless to better understand their plight (my husband quickly vetoed that idea).
Although my dream of spending the night on the streets of Los Angeles was short lived, what has not been is my desire to help those in need. The issue of poverty affects us all and none of us can escape its damage in the world. So with a heart to serve and a desire to make a difference in this area, I set out on a mission…to improve marriages.
You may wonder what these two seemingly different areas have in common. I didn’t understand it myself until two years after declaring myself a marriage advocate and launching the Happy Wives Club (HWC).
After reading a Pew Research report released in December, I immediately realized why marriage matters more than any other earthly relationship. I understood why God burdened my heart with this cause. He opened my eyes with this Wade Horn quote:
“The United States Administration for Children and Families spends $46 billion per year operating 65 different social programs. If one goes down the list of these programs… the need for each is either created or exacerbated by the breakup of families and marriages.”
The previous year, Robert Rector hammered home the same point:
“The collapse of marriage is the principal cause of child poverty in the United States. . . Overall, some 80% of long-term child poverty in the United States is found among children from broken or never-formed families.”
Dr. Bill Doherty, an educator and researcher offered his findings on this subject,
“The effects of the decline of marriage on society are striking. The failure of parents to marry and stay married leads to more crime, poverty, mental health problems, welfare dependency, failed schools, blighted neighborhoods, bloated prisons, and higher rates of single parenting and divorce in the next generation. Nearly every major social problem has deep roots in the failure of adults to form and sustain healthy marriages.”
William Galston, former senior advisor to President Bill Clinton gave this conclusion,
“You need only do three things in this country to avoid poverty – finish high school, marry before having a child, and marry after the age of 20. Only 8 percent of the families who do this are poor; 79 percent of those who fail to do this are poor.”
It was then I discovered why healthy marriages are so vital. If you think your marriage doesn’t matter outside of your own home, think again.
You and I are able to solve one of the greatest crises in the church and in the world by simply loving and honoring the vows we made before God and our families and encouraging others to do the same.
- Fawn Weaver
