If you are a Christian and find that your marriage is in trouble, you may want to reconsider using Christian marriage counseling. This service isn’t for everyone and will depend on how strongly religious you are about finding it suitable for your situation. Christian marriage counseling can make a big difference and may help to keep your marriage.
There is the option of regular marriage counseling for anyone that is having trouble with their marriage. This type of counseling is for anyone, despite religion, to use when they find their marriage is in crisis. This type of counseling will concentrate on any problems within the marriage, including how the partners treat one another. Christian marriage counseling also focuses on these things, including prayer and turning to God to help you through this tough time.
This type of counseling works excellent for some people, but it’s not for everyone. Many Christian couples may not even help from this type of counseling, depending on both partner’s views toward religion, church, and God.
Some Christians have such strong faith in God that they will spend a lot of time praying, remembering that God will point them in the right direction and encourage them through harsh conditions. Other people will not rely on God to make everything for them but feel that God helps those who help themselves, and they will pray for guidance but remember that they must also attempt to fix the problem. If a husband and wife have different views on such issues, Christian marriage counseling may provide them more conflict.
If the counseling focuses on prayer and miracles, then the partner that holds a person needs to put an effort in to make things happen may not be as happy with the counseling. If the counseling centers on the action and uses prayer for guidance, the partner who wants a miracle may not be satisfied.
If your marriage is having trouble already, the last thing you want to do is add more conflict. If the counseling does not use an approach that both partners are happy with, it is probably best to avoid it.
This is not to say you should shun Christian marriage counseling, but you should find out what kind of the way it takes before deciding whether to go ahead with it or not. You can always go to one session to get a feel for what it’s like and then make your choice. You should agree that if you are not happy with the counseling because it goes into what you believe, you do not continue with it.
Sometimes Christian marriage counseling can be old-fashioned and work from the beliefs of the Old Testament of the Bible that give women little or no rights. This type of counseling will usually blame marriage problems on the woman. Some religions still think that women should be subservient to men just as they were in Biblical times. They believe the man only has a share in frustration if he doesn’t respect the woman or praise her enough for her service and obedience. If a counseling service is given with these beliefs, this can harm the woman’s self-esteem and possibly make her resentful.
With both secular and Christian marriage counseling, you want to find out the focus of the counseling, and you need to feel pleased with how they work. If you aren’t satisfied with the counseling, stop going and find another one that may suit you better and make you both comfortable working through your problems.
