Hi all! So glad to have found this forum for Christians.
I'm from Singapore. I'm a stay-at-home mum with 3 kids. Since the birth of my 1st kid more than 3 years ago, my husband & I have encountered major problems in our marriage. Being 1st time parents, we struggle & had a lot of disagreements with child-rearing. Plus, added financial burdens after I quit my job to take care of baby. It's also at this time, both my parents-in-law had just retired so they had been interfering with the ways we (or mainly me) want to raise our kids. There's a lot of crashes in our moral values since they're not Christians. Worst of all, my husband had not been understanding & in particular, even pit against me & said that "I'm the PROBLEM!" Daily, I lived in torments & constantly thinking of divorce & suicide.
After 1 year (after I had my 2nd kid), we went for counselling. Things did improved a bit. We ended the counselling sessions slightly more than 1 year later (just before I gave birth to my 3rd kid). But we have been very lax in spending time to pray together & to communicate.
Lately, I've been feeling very discouraged to the point of giving up. The burdens of taking care of 3 very young kids, shouldering my husband's work stress & midlife crisis, parents-in-laws' aging & marital problems (father-in-law had adultery with aunt-in-law & just last year, had gone out secretly with my maid), sister-in-law's family problems & constant criticisms/jealousy.
I find it so hard to encourage myself. The church that we're attending is not at all relational. They placed great emphasis on ministry & giving. I find that this is tearing my family apart. My husband's heart/mind is always trying to help others & is NOT with the family. He even find me very "unspiritual" because I'm not serving in the church ministry. The church leaders advocate priorities in this order - God, ministry, then family, career. I feel so isolated - from my husband, the church, & the outside world.
Please pray for my marriage, God's protection over my children & particularly, please pray for me.
Thanks!
|