One of the ministers on the platform expressed his own plans too. According to Reverend K.O:
1.
As a pastor of a local assembly, I dedicate one Sunday in two months to
emphasize the importance of Godly homes to the church and society and the evil
consequences of divorce on the family, (children and the couple), Church and the
society.
2. I will also
influence my pastor friends to do something to check the trend of divorce in
their respective sphere of influence.
Mrs. R.D. raised
a very important point. She said, “Most of our Church Marriage Counsellors are
not trained, and so cannot give professional counselling beyond their
expertise. There's the need for trained counsellors to be part of the Marriage
Committee in our churches, and be easily accessible for people to benefit from
their services.”
From my experiences
both as a growing child, and in my marriage, I desire to have a blog where I
can post materials on staying together in marriage. “You fall in love to
get married, but you grow in love to stay married,” she concluded.
Mrs. Ade is
of the opinion that looking at the rate of divorce in our society, it is
obvious that many couples are not genuinely born again, and some are still
babies in Christ, even though they might have been in the church for several
years. Therefore, the need for salvation should be made very clear to our
church members.
Also, some Churches
do not take Marriage counselling seriously, so some couples did not have any
counselling knowledge as regards marriage. All they are after is the wedding
day not knowing that marriage is more than that. Churches should endeavour
to train godly couples to serve as marriage counsellors in their Marriage
Committees. She stated further that some sisters lack home training, for
example in the area of cooking and since men generally love good food, this can
cause friction in the home and subsequently end in divorce, if the wife refuses
to improve. There’s no harm in attending a short course in Cookery and home
management, so as to add taste to their family life.
In her concluding
statement, she encouraged all Christians to pray for troubled marriages. She
wrote, “if there is any family/home that we know which is passing through a hard time, let us intervene prayerfully and God will back us up and give them
victory in Jesus name.”
According to sister
E, we should “pray that their eyes of understanding will be flooded with
light.” When this is done based on the word of God, couples will never see
divorce as an option.
In her own words,
Mrs. F. B. opines:
i.
Anyone who is ready for marriage should be able to define what she or he
wants and how to achieve such without allowing any distraction.
ii.
From the onset, the ways of the Lord should be inculcated in our
relationships and children should be guided in like manner.
iii.
There is a need for understanding spiritual warfare in every area of
marital life, especially when there’s a particular trend in any of the couple’s
family history.
iv.
Regular talks and seminars on Marriage should be put in place in our
churches.
v.
Christians should serve as Role Models and example of believers in all
things.
vi.
Above all, if any marital challenge is becoming life-threatening, the couple can be counselled to consider living separately until a solution is found,
or provided.
This is suggested because there has
been cases of a partner killing his or her spouse because there’s serious
tension in their relationship and any little provocation can trigger violent
outburst which may go beyond their control, and subsequently results in one
partner killing the other.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I will
like to encourage us to meditate on the afore-mentioned points carefully and
prayerfully. The power is in our hands to stop this evil trend as children of
God. Healthy families will result in healthy Nations. Despite the fact that in
some churches, couple-to-be are taken through Pre-Marital Counselling classes
for three to six months, some people still build on a false foundation due to a deceitful lifestyle. According
to Mrs. D, there was the case of a couple who after going through Church
Counselling got married, but after some time the lady found out that where
the husband was staying was his friend’s apartment. Unfortunately, that was the
end of that marriage.
What stopped them from discussing
that problem before marriage? So Counsellors have a lot to do mostly in the
area of teaching. The foundation of every Christian home is Christ. He
should be our first lover. Couples must trust God and be ready to adjust wherever
possible. God sees and understands our pains, we must embrace forgiveness all the time! Let us rely on God to help us
through the journey of life. May His work in our
hands continue to flourish as we await His coming. Shalom.
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