On a golden anniversary
Glenn Wagner and Nancy Oosting were married in Fremont, Michigan, fifty years ago on Saturday, August 30, 1975. ~ photo courtesy Glenn and Nancy Wagner
Glenn Wagner reflects on 50 years of marriage and shares some important ideas that have helped his marriage endure.
GLENN M. WAGNER
Michigan Conference Communications
Fifty years ago, on Saturday, August 30, 1975, we were united in marriage in Nancy’s home church, First Reformed Church of Fremont, Michigan, by Nancy’s uncle, Rev. John Hains. The sanctuary was full of family and friends.
Our wedding took place four months after we graduated from Hope College in Holland and just one week after our return from a summer of missionary service in Taiwan. We married less than a week before we moved to Connecticut. I began three years of study at Yale Divinity School in preparation for a life of ministry, and Nancy took a job in the seminary office to help support our life together.
Today, there are currently over 61 million married couples in the United States, including 823,000 same-sex marriages. Forty-one percent of marriages are able to celebrate 25 years of marriage. Only 7% of marriages reach 50 years. Half of all marriages end in separation or divorce. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the average length of marriages that end in divorce is eight years.
Nancy and Glenn Wagner in August 2025. ~ photo courtesy Glenn Wagner
With the benefit of hindsight, we are grateful for eight significant blessings that have helped our marriage to thrive for half a century.
We’ve had great role models. Both sets of our parents had healthy marriages. Both of our fathers were veterans of World War II, college graduates, and had successful professional careers, which helped provide financial security and set an important example of living with fiscal responsibility. Our mothers were both exceptional women actively engaged as parents and contributing leaders in church and community.
Nancy and I were both raised in loving families that were active in healthy Christian churches, where we each interacted with many other Christian families. My parents were lifelong Methodists. Dad was chair of the church building committee. Mom was a Sunday school teacher and superintendent of the Sunday school. Nancy’s dad was a leader in their Reformed congregation and a Sunday school teacher. Her mother was also a Sunday school teacher and the church organist. By vocation and personal choice, we have continued throughout our marriage to be committed participants with our family in church and church-related social and mission groups. Being an active part of a faith community has been good for our relationship and our mental and spiritual health.
By choice and understanding the consequences, we have chosen to avoid the use of alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, pornography, and illegal drugs. We recognize that these choices can increase risks to health and to marriage.
The respected father of a best friend shared sound advice with me before I walked down the aisle to get married. That advice continues to be of influence in our marriage. He asked, “Glenn, do you love Nancy?” I replied, “Oh, yes, absolutely.” He then queried, “How does it feel?” I added, “It feels great!” He said, “I am glad to hear it. But before you go any further, I want you never to forget that what you are doing at the altar in marriage is not based on feelings. You are making a covenant. You are entering a binding contract before God and this community. Your contract is based on a choice, a decision, an act of your will. You are each making a promise to care for each other for better and for worse, to love and to cherish each other until death. Over a lifetime, feelings will burn hot and cold. It is your shared commitment and your mutual decision to endure and find ways to make your relationship flourish that will help your marriage to last.”
We have been blessed with great medical care. Along life’s journey, both of us have had to deal with accidents, surgeries, medical treatments, and recuperative therapies. We are both aware that our lives have been blessedly prolonged with the help of excellent health care.
Shared interests have strengthened our relationship. We love to travel, enjoy listening to audiobooks together, share hobbies, and value the friendships we have with others.
God has had a major role in our good fortune. In 1972, I received a life-changing dream as a direct communication from God, indicating that I was to marry Nancy. Nancy didn’t have that dream, and we parted company. It wasn’t until 1974 that our relationship rekindled and sparked a mutual decision to wed. Along the way, we have been aware of the power of prayer and God’s providential care in our journey. God’s grace has been revealed to us in the raising of our family, in our various places of ministry and employment, in our travels, and through our friendships.
We have benefited from sound financial advice in our marriage, provided by others, including workshops offered by the United Methodist Foundation of Michigan and lessons learned from attending and facilitating local church-sponsored classes of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. These learning events have helped us to manage the financial side of our lives.
We are blessed to still have friends and family members who supported us with their gifts, prayers, and presence on our wedding day, and they remain cherished parts of our lives. We plan to celebrate this golden anniversary by gathering with our children and our grandchildren.
God, thank you for the gift of marriage and the treasure of others to share the journey. Thank you for the presence and guidance of Jesus, who still is our guiding example for loving relationships. Amen.
Last Updated on August 28, 2025