Consider this a note to all those who consider marriage irrelevant and children a bother.

Last month, Oprah Winfrey interviewed Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church in Houston, TX. She admitted that "people succeed and are happiest when they come into alignment with God."

Gladys Knight's hit 1974 song "Midnight Train to Georgia" won her that year's Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group Or Chorus.  With the timeless line, "I am leaving on the midnight train to Georgia. I'd rather live with him in his world than live without him in mine," it has become Knight's signature song.

Both Oprah and Gladys are prominent successful Americans, lacking nothing capable of enjoying all the pleasures of life. They can afford all the desires of their hearts.

Their words are without debate. They are insightful, thoughtful, poignant, apt and appropriate. In order for you to achieve anything, you must give up something.

You must go from one to embrace another. Without self-denial and sacrifice, you will not reach the zenith of human endeavor. The universe does not revolve around you.

The Creator himself designed the Milky Way, fashioned the galaxies and formed man in his own image.

He charged his creation with the following directive: "Be fruitful and multiply. Subdue the earth and have dominion over it."

This original ordinance has not changed and is still applicable to every man and woman.

No matter what the modernists say, the success, future and well-being of the human race lie in the hands of one man and one woman, inextricably and permanently linked to one another. With steely resolve and unflagging determination they forge children of gold from the furnace of life. It is indisputable that children fare better in loving, monogamous, heterosexual unions. If you feel differently, please do not contact me, take it up with the "Designer."

And, so we turn our attention to the two ladies mentioned above, and others of that sort. It is with regret and sadness that I must report the foregoing. Their own philosophies seems to have eluded them. Despite what they have said, their lives indicate something else.

Gladys Knight wed to Les Brown, a life coach and motivational speaker. She did not, would not or could not stay in "Georgia" to make it work. Divorced, they demonstrated a clear example of the adage, "talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words."

Oprah, notwithstanding her generous impulses, has failed to risk and expose her heart. Fearful or selfish, she has never dared to make the final step in human development. Without that commitment to Stedman Graham, she will never experience the primary institution for the propagation of the human species and her specific DNA.

Ladies and gentlemen, He who knows everything has mandated that two must become one flesh. We must forsake all others and cling one to another and allow no man to put asunder. This is the only proven and tested method to lift us up out of the pit and transport us from "here to there."

George Clooney stars in this new movie The Descendants. George plays a man who is not very close to his daughters and refers to himself as the "back-up parent." After a boating accident involving his wife, he must learn to forge a relationship with them. He begins to understand the true significance of having descendants.

There is no success without a successor.

With seed, you bless and benefit the whole world and not just the fruit of your loins or the members of your own household. Remember your descendants are your imprint in the sands of time.

They are the message, the gift, the legacy you send to a time and place that you will never see.