The home is one of God’s first institutions. It is so important that God ensured he gave principles as to how it should run. Guidelines to couples in their joint relationship and in parenting.  God’s plan was for parents and children to live together in a God-fearing, peaceful, and conducive environment. It is also a setting where humans should grow to fulfil the purpose of God for their lives. However, the truth is that many homes are far from God’s intended plan. Many homes are in turmoil, compounded by the lockdown and the pandemic. Christian homes are not immune to the challenges. If anything, Christian homes receive worse attacks.

 Why is that so? The Christian home is a place where soldiers of the cross are meant to be trained and brought up to confront God’s enemies. Just think about it, if you were an army officer and you knew that the enemy was gearing up for an attack on your military base, would you fold your arms and watch the enemy prepare, equip its fighters and launch an attack? That would be foolishness. Let’s be practical, we can call the devil many things but not a fool or stupid. The enemy of God and by extension, enemy of the Christians, children of God, is wiser than any ordinary human being on earth. As children of God, God gives his own the wisdom, insight, grace, and ability to confront the enemy and deal with his evil plans.

The challenge is that the devil does not come in dark clothes with claws and funny looks that we have been made to believe. The enemy comes in form of discouragement, misunderstanding, lack of communication, unimaginable accusations, emotional affairs, rebellious children and others. These issues start in very subtle ways such that one would not notice that it is the enemy at work unless one is sensitive and discerning. Sometimes, it takes a long while for couples to realize that they are actually under spiritual attacks as they accuse each other or fault each other.

While I do not claim that all the challenges couples face are spiritual in nature, it is important to have the right foundation and to be discerning. The place of human errors, personality traits, individual responsibility and other factors cannot be overlooked. Hence, an all-rounded view of marriage and the challenges couples undergo is important. That is one of the reasons we have set up a support group for couples. This is a forum where couples interact to support each other. They will have a monthly opportunity to meet virtually and discuss topics that are common to all such as communication, individual growth, resolving conflicts, cultural challenges, challenges from mixed marriages, of third parties and many more.