. . . HAPPILY EVER AFTER?
Thoughts, tips, and essays on marriage.
After 18 years of marriage, and 3 kids, Shawn and I are finally starting to learn a few things. And we can't understand why it took us so long. So we're determined to teach our children a different way of looking at marriage, and all the issues involved in nurturing a healthy husband/wife relationship.
First of all, let's talk about prayer. Do you pray for your children's future (or current) marriages? You should do so. God has a plan for our kids. Let's pray that God will protect, preserve, and prepare our children and their future spouses for one another.
Protect: Pray that God will keep your children safe from any influences, relationships, or activities that can bring them harm and cause difficulties throughout their lives and in their future relationships. These include molestation, rape, casual sex, and negative cultural influences. Also, ask God to protect your children from exposure to drugs and alcohol, since the use of these substances is unsafe, unhealthy, illegal, and usually leads to poor judgment
Preserve: Pray that God will preserve your children's virginity for marriage. Ask Him to help you teach them of the physical and emotional risks involved in casual sex, and the difficulties it can bring into a marriage relationship.
Prepare: Ask God first to prepare your children for salvation, then for marriage and family, and a life lived in service for Him. Then ask Him to help you to model a healthy marriage for your kids, and to help you teach your children that a husband and wife should share a mutual respect and love for one another. Pray for His guidance in teaching your children the aspects of a Godly, biblical marriage.
It is never too early (or too late) to begin seeking God's intervention in our children's marriages. With our culture working against marriage the way it does, we really HAVE TO PRAY about it. God is the only one powerful enough to overcome the dangers of society which threaten our children. But we have to do our part, teaching, modelling, and most of all, praying.
Nancy