Every year when we say that we’re participating in someone’s Black Marriage Day event, we hear the same question: “What is Black Marriage Day?”
Founded in 2002, by Nisa Muhammad’s Wedded Bliss Foundation, Black Marriage Day (BMD) is a day to cherish and celebrate marriages in the African American community. Some people still don’t understand the reason for having a day set aside for black marriage. So I thought that I’d provide you with 3 reasons you and your family need to join one of the 300 communities across the United States that celebrate Black Marriage Day.
1.) If They Can’t See It They Can’t Be It: Many of our children are growing up with no idea of what marriage looks like up close and personal because no one in their families are able to provide that example. Black Marriage Day gives an excellent opportunity to expose them to the positive benefits of marriage in the black community. Black Marriage Day lets you provide those special teachable moments to your kids around the topics of marriage and responsible parenting as well.
2.) Married Couples Get a Chance To Grow: Black Marriage Day and the activities that are associated with it make couples that are already married reflect on where they are in relation to their unions. Most of the organized Black Marriage Day activities contain some type of learning component that will provide couples with the tools for sustaining healthy marriages and relationships. Black Marriage Day also provides a great networking tool for couples to meet other married couples.
3.) Our Community Needs Marriage: Simply put our community needs more healthy marriages. African Americans have the highest divorce rates, highest out of wedlock birth rates and the lowest marriage rates. The effects of these numbers are played out in the streets of our inner cities on a daily basis. With the decline of marriage came the decline of our communities and with the current state of affairs you won’t be able to fix one without the other.
On Saturday March 26th, my wife and I participated in a Black Marriage Day marriage conference at Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas, TX. Approx. 75 couples came together to celebrate marriage in the African American community. We all left the event with a renewed sense of purpose in regard to our own marriages and also in regard to spreading the word in our own communities that Marriage is sacred, Marriage is work and most importantly Marriage is good!
For more stories by Lamar and Ronnie Tyler, click here.
Lamar and Ronnie Tyler are the creators of the award-winning blog BlackandMarriedWithKids.com . They also are behind the Amazon.com bestselling DVDs Happily Ever After: A Positive Image of Black Marriage, You Saved Me and the upcoming film Men Ain’t Boys that explores manhood in the African American community. The Tylers are also the proud parents of four children.