Praying for Marriages (PfM)

Please join with us this week in praying for marriages in which law enforcement is the career of one or both partners. Marriages in this life situation can face a number of difficult problems. The spouse in law enforcement may deal frequently with the darkest side of life and, consequently, can become quite jaded, finding it difficult to count on or fully believe in anyone. This attitude can easily transfer to the marriage relationship, making intimacy and trust a struggle. Communication can also be difficult in these marriages. The nature of the job can make it challenging for the couple to share in conversation about a day’s work, particularly if one spouse presses for too many details and if the other spouse withholds information thought to be too sordid, unsettling or confidential for casual conversation. The spouse not in law enforcement often experiences the stress of knowing the other may face a life-threatening situation at any time. This knowledge...

Please pray this week for married couples with a special-needs child. These couples are often strained by a lack of physical and mental rest since caring for a special-needs child, regardless of his/her age, is often like caring for an infant or young child. Many times these couples find their finances stretched as they seek to pay for services and therapies for their child. Additionally, these couples can face hurtful acts of discrimination and exclusion, often unintentional, but still painful to bear. These couples can also become anxious and even depressed as they look into the future of their child who may never reach a level of independent living, wondering who will provide for their child’s care once they are unable to do so. Finally, those couples whose first child is a special-needs child may agonize over the decision to have other children. Pray that God would grant these couples an extra measure of rest and strength great patience in the face ...

This week please remember in prayer those married couples who are living through the loss of a job. In addition to the financial pressures a job loss can bring to a marriage, it can also cause the one who has lost the job to question his or her self-worth. If a new job does not materialize quickly, hope can be lost and, when hope is lost, inertia can set in and eventually lead to deep depression. If both spouses have been working, the spouse who is still employed will often attempt to make up some of the income loss by working more hours. This response, though helpful in closing the income gap, can inadvertently create a feeling of guilt in the life of the spouse who has lost the job, while at the same time exhaust the spouse who is taking on the extra work, particularly if the situation continues for an extended time. Inertia, depression, guilt and exhaustion are all negative effects of job loss, each of which can cause marriages to spiral out of control,...

This week we are taking a slight turn for the holidays. Of course we want you to pray for marriages this coming week, but we would like you to pray particularly for the marriages of those people you will be with during Christmas and/or as 2019 draws to a close. In many cases those will be the marriages of family and friends, marriages into which you have more intimate insight and for which you can pray with more specificity than normal. On the other hand, you may have had or will yet still have occasion to spend time with new acquaintances about whose marriages you know little. Regardless, all these marriages will benefit from your intercession. So, even in this busy season, take time to lift up these marriages to our Lord who is actively about the work of renewing all things. We hope you have a blessed Christmas and you experience the full goodness of God as you seek to live obediently before Him in 2020.

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, relationships and routines. 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 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 anticipated retirement only to be dissatisfied, restless and...

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, the more likely it is conflicts will arise. Also, if an adjustment period in any of these areas is ...

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 the sadness of the coming separation. 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; or deep and debilitating loneliness. When the deployment is during wartime, ...