Marriage is good but it is associated with so many challenges. No wonder Paul the Apostle said that it is good for a man not to marry (1 Corinthians 7:1). For peace to reign in marriage, the married partners must relate with each other in the fear of the Lord. There must be mutual understanding and commitment to obey spiritual and basic rules in marriage (Ephesians 5:21-25). Challenges in marriage are as many as the sand on a seashore. Sometimes, no matter how much couples in marriage try to meet at the centre, one of them may keep making it impossible. Discreet observation of a number of unions encountering instability show either of the couple or both of them bring the primordial experiences of their originating family to bear in their marriage.
Now, let me tell you a story of a couple who had lived happily together for many years but ended badly simply because of distrust. The husband was 82 years old and the wife was also above 70 years. The couple had four grown up children who are all university graduates, working and doing fine. The old man is successful and has a number of landed properties including houses in choice places of Lagos state, Nigeria. He had his Will drafted where he stated that at his death, 50% of all his properties should go to his wife, 30% to their children and 20% for him (presumably for his family).
However, one day, this old man stumbled on another copy of his Will document somewhere within his home where his Will had been rewritten by someone else. He later discovered that his wife was behind the alteration of the content of his original Will. In the new document, his wife gave herself 60%, children 30% and to her husband 10%. The perplexed husband was short of words so he consulted a different lawyer to draft a new Will. This time around, he sold all his choice houses except the first one he had built which is located among low-income earners. He moved in there without his wife.
In the newly drafted Will, he clearly stated that at his death, all the money in his account should go to a motherless babies’ home. The estranged wife along with their children who thought the old man’s action was being remotely manipulated by evil forces, approached the court of law to reverse the sales of the choice houses including where she was currently residing because she had refused to follow the old man to the old house. Unfortunately for the woman, the court’s decision was that the old man has the right to take any decision concerning his personal properties.
This narration is to buttress one of the challenges that surround the living together of man and woman. Every stage in marriage comes with peculiar challenges. At inception, when it is just the husband and wife, lesser or no conflict is experienced but as it gets older, issues begin to crop up and when that is not addressed to the satisfaction of the two parties involved, it gets stronger and may eventually kill trust in the marriage.
Just like Satan attacked the first marriage, he is still focused on ensuring that there is no peace in marriages. Every marriage that has Jesus as its foundation survives all storms and radiates the glory of God.
4. Academic challenge: Another area of challenge particularly being faced by the young is academic difficulties. Many reasons may be responsible for this which cut across finance, poor educational facilities, wrong choice of course of study, peer pressure, among others.
The standard of educational infrastructures coupled with the system adopted in running education in any country determine the quality of students that are turned out. In a country where there are poor facilities, students are subject to cheating at examinations or voluntarily withdrawing from the system. Where this is combined with poverty as a result of unemployment and bad leadership, the result will be an army of out-of-school students. Nations that have many of these out-of-school children are likely to experience an upsurge in insurgency, kidnap, cybercrime, religious intolerance and political instability.
To overcome this, the government and stakeholders in education management must develop platforms to promptly resolve every identified threat to educational development. Primary education should be made mandatory and possibly free. Secondary and tertiary education should also be subsidized because it is the source of manpower for a serious nation.
Nevertheless, students must be diligent in their studies and choose careers based on their areas of strength.
5. Depression: Depression is a condition where one’s morale is extremely down. This sets in when all hope of regaining your confidence is out of sight. It is also associated with low esteemed mood. Study shows that depression occurs for a variety of reasons. It could be as a result of a stressful life event such as unemployment, lack of money, divorce, isolation, redundancy, illness or bereavement.
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