HOW TO PRAY: MARRIAGES

BY DAVE PERCIVAL

In Genesis, as God completes His creation, He creates mankind to take care of it, and recognising it's a big task, he creates woman to work with man, and tells them ‘the two shall become one flesh.' He calls them to unity.

When two people marry they don't lose their individual identities, but they gain a new identity as a couple. Unity is not ‘uniformity', it doesn't mean we no longer have our own thoughts, ideas, and feelings, but rather that we value these differences and from them fuse something stronger and richer. In today's individualistic society, the idea that a husband or wife's purpose should be not self-fulfilment, but loving the other into the fullness that God wants for them, is an anathema - yet that is the what unity in marriage means. To live this way demands that we act responsibly, bringing life to each other, and that we nurture intimacy, gently revealing ourselves in vulnerability and trust to each other.

Today's society has become confused about marriage. Surveys consistently show that the majority of people aspire to be married, yet fewer actually marry each year. People mistakenly believe that risk of divorce is rising, yet in reality it hasn't changed for 25 years. They see the rising tide of broken family relationships, and fail to recognise that the risk of family breakdown is five times higher in unmarried families. Marriage, and in particular the wedding, has become a celebration of ‘having arrived' in life (career, house, family etc) rather than the starting step for a shared journey together. For many, particularly those on low incomes or at the margins of society, marriage has become an unattainable dream.

Yet there remains a silent majority who, by instinct or education, recognise that making the promises of faithfulness and permanence to each other in front of witnesses, provides a secure foundation on which to build a life and family. Marriage Week UK (February 7-14^th) exists to honour and celebrate the silent majority who have bravely made their vows, and who are seeking, each day, to make them work. It exists to encourage couples to take time privately, or together, to celebrate their love for each other in practical ways.

Two people, unconditionally committed to each other through the covenant of marriage, working together through good times and bad, praying together, enjoying the intimacy of a sexual relationship, caring for each other with fortitude and tenderness, are a visible and tangible sign of God's love at work in the world - a living example of unity in action.

Pray:

Let's thank God and celebrate the countless marriages which show, however falteringly, the meaning of unity in action.

Lift up those who are struggling to break free from the self-centred mindset of today's society.

Pray that society will show the good sense to put marriage, and all that it stands for, back at the heart of family life in Britain.

Pray that Christian couples will find the time to pray regularly with and for each other, bringing their marriage before God.

Dave Percival is the Director of 2-in-2-1 and the Coordinator of Marriage Week. 2-in-2-1is dedicated to making the best possible resources to support marriages available to everyone. Visit www.2-in-2-1.co.uk. Marriage Week UK celebrates the diversity and vibrancy of marriage as the basis for family life in the UK. It is timed to include Valentine's Day (7th - 14th Feb 2011). Visit www.marriage-week.org.uk

Source: Prayer for Today