Stan and Leota Gray (my parents)

I’ll never forget it.

The hall was rented.  The tables were decorated in white and gold with a miniature wedding cake marking “50 Years.”  It was 1997 and my parent’s Golden Wedding Anniversary.  My brother, sister and I worked tirelessly to honor them with such a reception.  We wanted to convey how much their example had meant to us. We wanted to invite all of our family and their friends to congratulate them on this mile stone.

Sitting at our family table were my Aunt and Uncle who had been married for 56 years, my sister and her husband who had been married for 24 years, my brother and his wife who had been married for 19 years, as well as Tom and I who had just celebrated 19 years too.  Total there was 168 years of faithfulness on display.  What a rarity!  Today more than half of all marriages end in divorce, and this includes the Christian community!  How can we prevent these statistics from continuing to rise?

Dennis and Barbara Rainey, with Family Life Today have been hosting Marriage Encounter weekends for years and with great success.  Now they have expanded their seminars by making videos available of their successful Weekend To Remember material.  Last weekend was the first national campaign for this worthwhile event.  Watch the following video to hear about it:

The Weekend To Remember Conferences are taking place all over America.  Click here to see where one is planned in your area.

The Art of Marriage Conferences are also available all over America.  Click here to see where one is planned close to you.

Marriages are not primarily for our happiness; we are actually the glue helping to hold our society and its future together.  Children thrive in homes where the father and mother are present everyday.  Statistics prove it.  This is why we must do all we can to not only stay together – the first step – but to grow our marriage for God’s glory.

Children yet to be born will benefit from our faithfulness to our wedding vows, who knows?  Maybe they’ll be the ones to host our Golden Anniversary party decades from now!