Praying for Marriages (PfM)

Please join us this week in praying for couples going through the hospitalization of a spouse.  This life situation can create numerous stresses on a marriage.  Just dealing with the anxiety of the medical situation itself is trying on a marriage, but there are other stressors as well.  With one spouse is in the hospital, daily tasks do not decrease by half; in fact, they increase for the other spouse, and, if children are involved, they increase a lot.  Time gets compressed as one spouse tries to be at the hospital to support and comfort the other while still needing to meet the demands of work, home and family.  It is not unusual at all for both spouses to become sleep-deprived.  Hospitalization does not equate to quality rest for the patient or for the spouse who is splitting time between an empty bed at home and a not-so-comfortable chair in a hospital room.  And the longer the hospital stay the more the stresses increase.  Finally, ...

Join us this week in praying for marriages dealing with the issue of infertility. Couples in these marriages experience drastic ups and downs, hopes and disappointments, month after month.  Hormonal issues can create mental and physical weariness.   Medical testing and treatments and their side affects can add to this weariness and also strain couples' financial resources.  The marriage relationship can also be tested, particularly when the husband and wife cope with disappointment differently and grieve differently.  The spirits of couples in this life situation can be wounded by insensitive questions and statements made by others, both knowingly and unknowingly.  Finally, despite their best efforts to rejoice with others, these couples can struggle emotionally as they see their friends becoming pregnant and have children with apparent ease. As you lift these couples up, pray that they will have one or two close friends who understand a...

Please join us this week in praying for the marriages of those in pastoral ministry.  Because of the various demands of the pastoral role, it is easy for the pastor to become wedded to his ministry, fully believing he is doing good when in fact he is a workaholic, neglecting the needs of his spouse and children and unintentionally undercutting the very ministry to which he has been called.  Also, in the process of being "all things to all men,” pastor and spouse can fail to build personal friendships and miss out on the joy and support these friendships can supply.  Finally, marriages of those in the pastoral ministry are lived in a fishbowl.  The business of the pastor and spouse is everybody's business.  This fact can cause those in the pastoral ministry to put up a false front and fail to live authentically before their congregation. As you pray for these couples, pray that they will be able to set priorities, reserving family time and cou...

Please join us this week in praying for marriages that are dealing with the death of a child.   Maybe nothing feels as abnormal and as out of the natural order as a child preceding parents in death.   No parent expects it and no premarital counseling equips couples to deal with this emotionally charged occurrence.   Though a child’s premature death can happen suddenly and without warning or come at the end of a long illness, the end result is still a precious gift gone and the effects of this loss can be devastating on even the strongest marriages.   Married couples that experience such a loss may experience no deeper grief.   Often this grief is accompanied by guilt, even when there are absolutely no grounds for this guilt. One of the most difficult parts of this experience is maintaining a strong marriage when each spouse is processing grief in a different way and at a different speed.   One may be able to re-enter the normal pace of life wh...

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.   These young couples many times 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 that can no longer by fulfilled because the 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 regret their marriage decision. Another situation often faced by teen couple...

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 ant...

As we remember our veterans this Memorial Day weekend, we ask you to do triple duty in prayer this coming week.   First, we ask you join us in thanking God for those who have made the supreme sacrifice while standing in the gap in our defense.   Second, we ask you to pray for those husbands and wives who have lost their spouses as they defended our country and fought for those who needed our help in times of oppression.   Third, we ask you to pray for an often forgotten part of the military family, those husbands and wives whose spouses are still missing in action.   While it is practically impossible to determine how many there are, some number of MIAs are still separated from their families.   The spouses they have left behind live with the constant stress of not knowing if their loved one is dead or alive.   As time goes by, just maintaining hope is a daily challenge.   Yet giving up hope can seem like a betrayal.   Often these sp...