Praying for Marriages (PfM)

Please pray this week for married couples with a special-needs child.  These couples are often strained by a lack of physical and mental rest. Many times finances are stretched as couples seek to finance services and therapies for their child. They can often face hurtful acts of discrimination and exclusion. These couples can also become anxious and even depressed as they look into the future of their child who may never reach a level of independent living, wondering who will provide for their child’s care once they are unable to.  Those couples whose first child is a special-needs child may agonize over the decision to have other children. Pray that God would grant these couples an extra measure of rest and strength great patience in the face of trying circumstances the resources they need to provide for their child oneness in their decision making peace that protects them from an unknown future ready support from the community of faith...

This week please remember in prayer those married couples who have experienced a job loss.  In addition to the financial pressures a job loss can bring to a marriage, it can also cause the one who has lost the job to question his or her self-worth.  If a new job does not materialize quickly, hope can be lost and, when hope is lost, inertia can set in and eventually lead to deep depression. If both spouses have been working, the spouse who is still employed will often attempt to make up some of the income loss by working more hours.  This response, though helpful in closing the income gap, can inadvertently create a feeling of guilt in the life of the spouse who has lost the job, while at the same time exhaust the spouse who is taking on the extra work, particularly if the situation continues for an extended time. Inertia, depression, guilt and exhaustion are all negative effects of job loss that can cause marriages to spiral out of control.  ...

Join us this week in praying for marriages in which communication has broken down.  By all accounts the lack of effective communication is a frequent and devastating dysfunction in marriages.  The break down in communication can occur for a wide range of reasons.  Communication can grind to a halt if one’s words or body language suggests disinterest in or contempt for a spouse’s input.  Sometimes the desire to communicate can dry up if a spouse feels the other’s words are never followed up with action, in other words, if lightly made promises are never kept.  Nagging can also cause communication cease. When effective communication stops, all sorts of misunderstandings and false assumptions are likely to spring up.  The resulting cascade of trouble and stress will then be difficult to reverse since the very tool needed to effect this change, good communication, is already impaired. Pray with us this week that couples having communica...

Please join us this week in praying for marriages in deep financial debt.  Debt is a life-situation pervasive in our American culture.  When this debt is excessive, it can lead to numerous problems for a married couple. First, deep debt can lead to a blame game in which spouses expend their energy assigning blame for their situation instead of working on a solution.  Second, excessive debt can create crippling stress as the couple tries to maintain life and limb while fending off creditors.  Third, debt can lead to hopelessness, since escaping debt is most often a long road many couples see as beyond their ability to travel.  And finally, even when a couple commits to escaping debt, they face the difficulties of changing long established habits, of giving up things precious to them, and of learning to say “no,” or at least “not now,” sometimes even to good and worthwhile things. Please pray that couples in this situation will Be gr...

Please join us this week in praying for marriages in which couples have offset work schedules.  In a very large number of marriages today, both spouses work.  This situation has its own challenges, but, when the spouses’ work schedules off-set, that is, one works days and the other works evenings or midnights, the challenges become even greater.  Just carving out time to see each other can be difficult.  Sleep schedules can create conflict, and intimacy can be curtailed because both spouses are not rested at the same time. The social life of the couple can be affected.  Events both would enjoy attending are often scheduled at times which will keep one or the other away.  When the events are for couples, even the spouse who could attend will often opt out because he/she doesn’t want to feel like a fifth wheel.  The snowballing of this situation can cause the couple to become isolated from others who could contribute an added level o...