Praying for Marriages (PfM)

Please join us this week in praying for marriages facing retirement.  Retirement, whether the retirement of one or both spouses, can be a significant stressor in a marriage.  Even when the retirement is a free choice and comes at a planned time, it creates changes in schedules, changes in relationships and changes in routine. All these changes, even when desired, carry some level of stress.  When the retirement is forced by an employer or ill health or comes at an inconvenient time (like when retirement savings have taken a plunge), the stress can be even greater. Some level of discomfort in a marriage at retirement time is often experienced just because many people just don’t handle change well, even positive change.  Change means unknowns and unknowns create fear in many people.  A fearful spouse or a fearful couple does not bode well for marital harmony. And of course we have all heard of occasions when someone has eagerly anticip...

In light of Valentine’s Day, I should have done this last week, but better late than never.   Take this week to pray for your own marriages. Sometimes we focus our prayer attention on others, and that is as it should be, but we should not forget our own marriages.   They should be brought to our Lord frequently, with all their joys and sorrows, successes and failures, beauty and warts. So, please join us in spending this week focusing on our own marriages, asking our God to make of them what is pleasing to Him. 

Please join us this week in praying for married couples on the mission field.  Couples on the mission field often experience a number of stressful situations all at the same time.  They are separated from family and friends; they are immersed in a new and strange culture; they are starting a new job; they are establishing a new home; and, on top of all that, they are often learning a new language.  Just one of these situations can create difficulties.  All of them together almost guarantee some degree of marital conflict. Many times conflict will arise because the spouses adjust to all the changes differently or at least at different rates.  One may have difficulty with homesickness; one may have a harder time with the language; and one may make cultural adjustments with less ease than the other.  The more out of balance the couples’ adjustments are the more likely it is conflicts will arise. Also, if an adjustment period in any of these a...

Please join us this week in praying for marriages dealing with the military deployment of a spouse.  Although there are many elements of military life that can affect a marriage, probably none affects the couple more than the separation of deployment. Just preparing for the deployment of a spouse can be stressful for the marriage. During this preparation period it is not unusual for the couple to become emotionally and physically detached.  This detachment may be an unconscious defense against sadness of the coming separation that would otherwise be too emotionally hard to bear.  The anticipation of the deployment can also be accompanied by fear, fear of the unknown, fear of never seeing the departing spouse again and even the fear of facing daily life alone. Once the deployment occurs emotions can fluctuate wildly:  relief that the good-bye is over; resentment of being abandoned; guilt for abandoning; excitement about accomplishing a mission...