Marriage works.

It makes people happier, live longer, and build more economic security. Children with married parents per-form better in school.

Deep down, most people seek a rewarding lifelong commitment with a spouse. But in the midst of challenges, it’s easy to forget how marriage can benefit our personal lives. Are we as a society losing our determination and skills needed to preserve healthy marriages?

Marriage breakdown casts a dark shadow on our kids and on society at large. Divorce and unwed childbearing cost the U.S. taxpayers a whopping $112 billion annually, according to scholarly research conducted by the Institute for American Values.

National Marriage Week USA—from February 7 to 14 every year—is a collaborative effort to encourage many diverse groups to strengthen individual marriages, ad-dress the divorce rate, and build a stronger marriage culture, which in turn helps curtail poverty and benefits children.

Please join with others to host special events, launch a marriage class or home group, or write to your local newspapers in observance of National Marriage Week. You can help at www.nationalmarriageweekusa.org.

In these spiritually and economically challenging times, building stronger marriages builds a stronger nation.