Week 147: Teenagers and Marriages

Please join us this week in praying for teenage marriages.  For mature couples getting started on the right foot in a marriage is difficult.  Starting well when both spouses are teenagers is even more difficult.

Issues can arise as a simple matter of lack of maturity or life experience.  Many times these young couples have not had the chance to face problems as independent adults and, consequently, have not developed the skills to deal successfully with some of the trials of married life.

Even in a perfect situation, just making the transition from dependent teenagers to an independent married couple can be extremely challenging.  Single teenage friends can have expectations of the new couple the spouses should no longer fulfill because their marriage now takes priority.  The pressure to be a part of the old group in the same old way can tempt the new couple to make decisions that would be harmful to their relationship.

Another situation often faced by teen couples is starting a marriage pregnant or with a baby or young child.  They have gotten “the cart before the horse” and as a result must learn to be a spouse at the same time they are learning to be a parent.  Obviously, a “had to get married” situation may signal that one or both spouses were not really desiring marriage at this point in their lives.  That attitude does not bode well for weathering the challenges of early marriage.

Finally, the parents of a teen couple can create additional issues by withdrawing support for a marriage they didn’t think should happen or by smothering the couple with advice and not respecting their independence.  Either way the relationship between the couple and their parents is not healthy and does not provide the support new marriages so often need.

Please pray that couples who have started their marriage as teenagers will

• Look to the Lord to protect them as they grow up while growing together
• Be blessed by the Lord with a maturity beyond their years
• Be supported by family and friends
• Resist the temptation to chase the past to the neglect of their marriage
• Be quick to forgive one another and quicker to seek forgiveness
• Seek wise counsel when they face new and confusing circumstances
• Understand that working through difficulties will lead to a healthy marriage while running from difficulties will only lead to deeper, destructive troubles