Week 46: Marriages and Breast Cancer

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Please join us this week in praying for marriages dealing with the tragedy of breast cancer.  Although cancer of any kind can create stressful situations for marriages, breast cancer does so uniquely.  It strikes the wife at the heart of her self-image and worth.  Many sufferers experience an emotional roller coaster that can cause their spouse to receive conflicting signals.  One moment a wife may long to be held and touched yet at another moment, or maybe even at the same moment, withdraw from physical contact.  The husband, on the other hand, who does not understand this dynamic, can become confused when his touch is rebuffed or his reserve is interpreted as uncaring.

Like with other cancers, the physical battle of fighting breast cancer is draining and demanding, on the patient particularly but also on the spouse.  Almost without fail, the physical stresses of enduring radical treatments and of caring for the patient create emotional stresses and emotional stresses make enduring the physical even more difficult.  This vicious cycle is extremely hard on even the best marriages and can be devastating to those marriages that are already unstable.

Add all this to the challenges breast cancer brings to a couple’s physical intimacy and it is no wonder that an estimated 25% of marriages facing this disease don’t survive.

Please pray that couples facing this disease will

  • Experience the deep and abiding peace of God
  • Love each other and cling to each other as never before
  • Seek to understand the complex physical and emotion dynamic of this disease
  • (For the patient) Help her spouse understand her ups and downs and forgive him when he doesn’t
  • (For the caregiver) Rise to the level of selfless caring his wife needs
  • (For the caregiver) Express frequently his endless love and unchanging desire his wife
  • (For the caregiver) Overflow with compassion, long-suffering and tenderness
  • Embrace each other, physically, emotionally and spiritually
  • Seek help and support from those who have experience with this disease

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