The greatest gift you can give your kids is a healthy relationship with your wife, where your love and affection for her is obvious.

“What marriage has done for me is hold up a mirror to my sin. It forces me to face myself honestly and consider my character flaws, selfishness, and anti-Christian attitudes, encouraging me to be sanctified and cleansed and to grow in godliness.” —Gary Thomas (Sacred Marriage)

Married people are twice as likely as those who are single for whatever reason to say they are "very happy." Some 40% of married couples say they are very happy, compared to 15% of the separated, 18% of the divorced. So staying married beats the alternatives hands down.

But the scary part is that 60% of married couples aren’t very happy. And there’s little difference in the divorce rate of Christian and non-Christian couples—divorce rate on both sides is about 56% at last count. So what are the chances that a child who grows up in a home where there’s no joy in the marriage of his parents will go on to create a wonderful marriage and home for his own kids? Slim at best.

We have to learn (sometimes painfully) that commitment is everything. You make a decision to “love your wife, as Christ loved the church, and gave Himself up for her” and live it out (Ephesians 5:23).

This ironclad commitment to your marriage covenant is different from the rest of the world.

A man who stays married to the same woman for his whole life has accomplished something few men in our current culture have. As he does this, he’s giving his wife the security she so desperately needs, even if she’s not aware of that need. The greatest gift you can give your kids is a healthy relationship with your wife, where your love and affection for her is obvious.

Your strength in helping others and yourself in marriages is in your humility.