Week 292: Marriages and Newly Weds
Please join us this week in praying for newly married couples. Though the issues faced by newly married couples are common and often joked about, they can be troublesome and cause a marriage to get off to a rocky start. Every new marriage is a blending of two different people, and their differences require adjustments, understanding, open communication and forgiveness.
The
adjustments of living everyday with another human being can be a strain.
These adjustments are tough for young persons who haven’t yet established
routines as independent adults; they can be even more troublesome for
individuals who have been independent adults for a number of years prior to the
marriage and have habits and life-styles with which they have become
comfortable. In either case, adjustments both large and small are a
challenge for newly weds.
Another
issue for young marriages is the personal baggage the newly weds bring with
them. Often not all this baggage gets opened during the dating and
engagement period, so surprises, and not always pleasant surprises, are
frequent. A spouse’s reactions to these unknown tidbits can lead to
disappointment and disagreement. Negative reactions by one spouse can
cause the other to conceal further revelations for fear that these will just
bring more negative response and hurt. Dealing with these surprises
requires understanding or often forgiveness for less than appropriate initial
reactions.
Finally,
every person entering a marriage has expectations, mental pictures of how the
marriage is to work. Rarely are the spouses’ pictures the same and even
more rarely does either of their picture albums fully depict what the new marriage
will actually look like. These unfulfilled expectations can cause the new
spouses to face some uncomfortable realities. Open communication about
expectations is necessary to keep the uncomfortable from becoming an
unconquerable barrier to happiness.
This
week please pray that newly married couples will
- Extend to each other extraordinary grace and understanding
- View inevitable adjustments as minor sacrifices to the high goal of becoming one
- Communicate kindly, humbly, openly and continuously
- Be quick to forgive and even quicker to seek forgiveness as they work through the process of becoming one
- Daily affirm their love for each other in word and deed
- Understand they are painting their own unique marriage picture that will be different than any other they have ever seen or imaged
- Submit their marriage and themselves to the lordship of Jesus Christ
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