Week 192: Couples Who Have Been Disowned by Their Children

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Please join us this week in praying for couples that have been disowned by their children.  The nature and causes of fractured family relationships are varied, complex and rarely one-sided.  The division can be the choice of the parents or the child/children.  Regardless, the division is always painful to someone, if not to everyone.

One variety of fractured family relationships is when children disown their parents.  The impetus for this separation can be rooted in bad parenting choices or in the equally bad choices of adult children.  In either case, the painful effects the division has on the disowned couple can be a challenge to the very existence of their own husband/wife relationship.

If the estrangement from their children is the result of bad parenting choices, particularly if those choices were those of one parent (for example, an absentee father or an overly protective/smothering mother), the other spouse may harbor resentment and blame.  No marriage will last long if one spouse holds over the head of the other the responsibility of such devastating hurt as the loss of a child’s affection. 

On the other hand, if the relational fracture with their children is the result of the children’s bad choices (for example, if children decide or are convinced by others that their parents are a drag on their life style or relationship), the couple can feel bewildered, even abandoned, and be pressed into the situation of trying to fill the gap in each other’s life that has been left by their children, a gap they are ill-equipped to fill.

Please pray this week that couples disowned by their children will

  • Cast their burden on Christ, for He cares for them
  • Realize that harboring resentment or blame will not repair the rift with their children or enhance their marriage
  • Forgive and/or seek the forgiveness of their spouse as their particular situations demand
  • Forgive and/or seek the forgiveness of their children as their particular situations demand
  • Pray for their children without ceasing
  • Keep doors of communication open with each other
  • Seek the wise counsel of friends and professionals
  • Try to live life positively and joyfully despite this great hurt
  • Never, never give up

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