This post originally appeared at https://wifamilycouncil.org/radio/gods-plan-for-marriage-always-worth-defending-promoting/
2025 | Week of February 3 | Radio Transcript #1604
Marriage is the most foundational institution in all of history, created by God for His glory and humankind’s good. This unique and beautiful institution fuses two people together in an exclusive lifelong partnership and is universally good—knowing no geographic, time, or demographic boundaries.
For many centuries, marriage was recognized only as a religious ceremony, a solemn promise of commitment made between two people–one man and one woman–before God and witnesses. Today, in 2025, that still is the proper definition of marriage. But there have been deliberate efforts to un-define and redefine marriage, to remove it from its holy, religious context, and to secularize it, putting government in control.
This is a problem for a number of reasons, but consider this: when marriage ceases to be a promise made before God, there isn’t an authority to ensure that promise, that sacred vow, is kept. Government theoretically could be an authority, and it was for some time when it basically just reinforced marriage as God had designed and ordained it, before it implemented no-fault divorce and allowed marriages to end for any reason or no reason at all.
Government further eroded marriage when it tried to say that two people of the same sex could marry. Some governments have even tried to say that multiple person marriages are legal. Cases have been filed right here in our country to legalize polygamous marriages. To date, fortunately, none have been successful.
These government unions, despite being called marriage, are not marriage. They are relationships, between two or more consenting adults , who are civil and living together; sometimes they even find a way to add children to the relationship. But make no mistake: this is not, has not been, and will never reflect the actual institution of marriage as God designed and ordained it.
The institution of marriage, in many ways, has lost its way. But the core definition—despite all efforts of government–has not changed.
On Friday, February 7, National Marriage Week begins. This is a time when we celebrate the institution of traditional, historical, and, yes, biblical marriage – and all who have committed themselves in a loving relationship. We celebrate those who have used their marriage to implement parenthood, bringing up their children in the ways of God the Father.
Here at Wisconsin Family Council, four years ago we started the Marriage Hall of Fame to celebrate both the institution of marriage and individual marriages that have gone the distance, because strong marriages that last a lifetime are the bedrock for a strong Wisconsin.
Applying to join the Hall of Fame is open to any married couple in Wisconsin who has been married for sixty or more years. Last year’s Longest Married Couple was Richard and Beverly Grosskreutz, who were married in 1949. Richard is a U.S. Army veteran and worked as an auto mechanic. Beverly worked at Whitewater electronics and several office jobs through the years. They had 2 sons and 4 grandchildren. When asked, their advice on a happy marriage was simple: “The first hundred years are the hardest.”
Twenty-two other couples joined the Grosskreutzes in being inducted into the Marriage Hall of Fame last year. In the last four years, we have inducted well over sixty couples in this unique Hall of Fame.
If you’d like to be considered for this honor or know a couple who should be honored, you can fill out the application online at WIFamilyCouncil.org. Couples must consent to have their names, story, and photos published on our website. The application deadline for this year’s class is Saturday, February 22, 2025.
National Marriage Week and the month of February is a perfect time to celebrate these amazing couples who have committed to each other, through good times and bad, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, as long as they live on this earth. They stand as timeless examples of the goodness of marriage, and remind us why we must continue to fight to protect the institution of marriage, including the definitions, benefits, and acknowledgements thereof.
God made marriage to bless His people, to be fruitful in this world, and to multiply. Marriage is a reflection of God and His heart for us: worthy of our support and deserving of our efforts to beautifully and faithfully exemplify this institution as God designed it.
For Wisconsin Family Council, this is Julaine Appling, reminding you that God, through the Prophet Hosea, said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
Sierra John