With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, we are happy that this week is designated as Marriage Week. This week serves as a wonderful opportunity for us to reflect on God’s design for marriage and to celebrate its benefits for individuals, families, and societies.
God’s Design
As Christians, we recognize that God instituted marriage in the Garden of Eden as part of His perfect design for humanity. Although the Fall of mankind has affected marriage – like everything else – for the worse, God graciously allows us to continue to enjoy many benefits from His design of marriage and family.
In recent years, rampant secularization has challenged God’s design of marriage: one man, one woman, for life. Nowadays, many choose to delay marriage or to forgo it altogether. But, even as the cultural stigmatization of marriage has grown in negativity, research still backs God’s design.
Achievement Gap or Marriage Gap?
The breakdown of marriage and family has covered our society with scars. Often, children experience the absence or breakdown of marriage most deeply. Research from the Family Structure Index found that 44% of teenagers in Wisconsin are raised in broken or never formed family situations. The stability healthy marriages bring to a home and to a child’s developmental years is irreplaceable. While many single parents work hard to raise their children well and demonstrate extraordinary sacrifice and effort, nothing can replace the benefits of a child living with his or her married mom and dad. Simply from a time perspective, a one parent cannot invest as much into a child as two can.
One area where the children of married parents consistently outperform children from broken homes is education. For years, Wisconsin has combated the perceived achievement gap between White students and Black students. Research from the U.S. Department of Education found that Wisconsin has the widest achievement gap in the nation. Although mountains of funding and other efforts have been directed toward closing this gap, it persists.
A deeper dive into the statistics reveals that perhaps the state of marriages might be a driving factor in this concerning disparity. Statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau reveal that in 2023 nearly half of all Black children lived with one parent. In contrast only about one in five white children lived with only one parent. While the number of white children living with two parents has declined over the past few decades, it has remained steadily low for Black children, providing insight into the ongoing struggle for educational success that Black children experience.
Research from the Institute for Family Studies reveals that students with married parents consistently outperform their peers from broken homes. This research shows that while 60% of students with married birth parents achieve mostly A’s in school, the number drops to 47% for students with unmarried parents or disrupted home situations. As we consider the clear benefits of marriage for students, efforts to close the achievement gap should focus on supporting strong family structures.
Marriage and Faith: Strong Foundations
Education professor and prominent advisor William Jeynes conducted a meta-analysis seeking to understand the root causes of the achievement gap. He wrote, “This meta-analysis yielded results that will surprise many: the variables that most reliably reduce the achievement gap are family and faith.”
Jeynes concludes, “Perhaps most significantly, the meta-analysis revealed that, if an African American or Latino student was a person of faith and came from a two-biological-parent family, the achievement gap totally disappeared, even when adjusting for socioeconomic status.”
Marriage provides benefits for all of society. Not the least of these benefits is the stability, love, and healthy environment healthy marriages provide for developing children. It shouldn’t surprise us that God’s design is best.
Honoring Marriage in Wisconsin
Marriage is a gift from God. While not all people may have the opportunity or make the choice to be married, a society built on the foundation of committed and loving marriages provides benefits to all. Sadly, God’s design for marriage receives backlash from much of our society today. While we often fight this destructive cultural narrative with statistics and studies demonstrating the benefits of marriage for all, we also take time to honor those who have faithfully fulfilled their marriage vows throughout their lives.
One way we seek to honor married couples is through Wisconsin Family Council’s Marriage Hall of Fame. Any couple who lives in Wisconsin and has been married for more than 60 years can apply for the Marriage Hall of Fame. Since 2022, we have inducted 81 couples to the Marriage Hall of Fame. Their stories provide a wonderful example for coming generations showing the beauty of a life of commitment and shared hardships and joys. The child of one of our 2025 couples wrote, “Mom and Dad would say they are just average; but to us, their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren they are a true treasure. They have taught us what is important in life and that is to always have God at the center of your life, love unconditionally and trust and cherish one another. Their lives have been a shining example to us and we strive each day to follow their lead and to give all the glory to God.”
If you know a couple in Wisconsin who has been married for more than 60 years, please forward them details about our Marriage Hall of Fame and encourage them to apply! In March, we will issue a statewide press release announcing the inductees and highlighting the longest-married couples. Any couple can apply to share their story and marriage advice if they live in Wisconsin, are both still alive and have been married for more than 60 years. Click here to submit your story. Applications are open through February 20, 2026.
This week, we encourage you to reflect on the benefits of marriage in your life. If you have benefited from your parents’ faithful marriage, take a moment to thank them for their commitment to each other and to their family. If you are married, consider how you can strengthen your relationship with your spouse and show your gratitude for their faithfulness. As you consider married couples in your family or church, pray that God will give them grace to work through hard times together and joy as they grow in their relationship.
All of society benefits God’s design of marriage. While our culture continues to despise God’s design, those who commit to faithful, loving, and God-honoring marriages will continue to shine brightly as wonderful examples to their family, friends, and communities.
The work of Wisconsin Family Action is possible because of generous friends who partner with us financially and in prayer. If you value the work WFA does, we invite you to invest in this unique work that is all about you, your family, your faith, your freedom, and your future! As always, we welcome and covet your prayers.
