MAIN TEXT: 2Pet.1:5-9
MEMORY:
But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. (

However difficult the situation is, you must ensure that you don’t lose hope. The following are some of the principles which you may apply to find peace and confidence even in such difficult situations.

Self Examination.
Beam the searchlight on yourself. After self examination, you may discover that it was a foundational problem, in which case you may need to ask God to forgive you and open your eyes to what you may do to manage the situation in which you have found yourself. You may also discover that though your spouse is at fault, there are certain things you are doing to aggravate the situation. In such a situation, you may need to caution yourself against doing what may continually make matters to become worse. If however, after self evaluation you discover that nothing is traceable to you as the source of the problem, there is still something you can do; pray! Prayer changes things.

Be More Committed.
Commitment makes you to desire solution when you could have opted out; it makes you to endure when things are hard and it makes you to pray for the intervention of God when you could have lost hope.

Create Life.
Challenges in marriage often make partners to shut down from each other, thereby snuffing life out of the marriage. Whatever you can do to make your home come alive should be done by you. Instead of shutting down, communicate. Make things that lively up your home to happen

Change Your Perception.
Try to put yourself in your partners shoes and feel how comfortable it is. For instance if the problem is your mother-in-law whom you feel is such a problem and insist must not visit your family, have you considered if you were told that your mum should not visit you? If you are not too rigid, there may be a compromise which may satisfy the two of you.

Change Yourself.
A lot of times, you may be trying to change your spouse when you should actually be trying to change yourself. There are certain elements in the behavior of your spouse that is causing problems in your home which may never change. If you work on yourself, you may be able to respond better or better be able to cope.

Nurture Yourself.
You must not allow the difficult situation in your home to destroy your spiritual, physical and emotional health. As a believer, you can’t afford to allow what is happening in your home to affect your relationship with God negatively. Many in various psychiatric hospitals are there because of marital challenges. Remember that they did not suddenly get there but as a cumulative effect of onslaughts on their mental capacities.
Create time for recreation, discover new hobbies, fulfill a ministry, read new books and grow yourself.

Pursue Your Vision.
Instead of thinking about retaliation or divorce/ separation, why don’t you think of pursuing your vision. Further studies, greater involvement in ministry, meeting the needs of others etc. may be a great way of eliminating the boredom and monotony that comes with difficult marriage.

DISCUSSION POINTS WITH YOUR SPOUSE
*As much as one might have tried in handling a challenging situation at home, there is always extra sacrifice that may be made if there is sufficient level of commitment. If you agree, discuss some extra sacrifices that you may still need to make in your own home.

PRAYER
Father, I receive the grace to take the right decision at the right time in Jesus’ name.

QUOTABLE QUOTE.
EVEN IN DIFFICULT MARRIAGE, THERE MAY BE FUN WHICH HOPELESSNESS IS NOT ALLOWING YOU TO DISCOVER. – Dr. Mike Oluniyi

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