Kids Can be Good for Marriage, ReallyVocabulary and Expressionsworld-altering

Kids Can be Good for Marriage, Really
   Starting and raising a family is certainly a soul-shaping, world-altering experience — but first it’s a marriage-shaping and relationship-altering experience. No marriage is ever the same once children come into the picture.
   When a baby arrives, everything changes. Parents must adapt to the care of a new, vulnerable infant — an enormous task. Not surprisingly, 40 to 70 percent of couples experience stress, profound conflict and drops in marital satisfaction during this time.
   Children can bring significant challenges for couples who married with the hope of spending their lives enjoying a soul-mate connection. Contrary to popular thought, however, your marriage can survive and even thrive as you take on the mission of a family. In fact, having children has the potential to deepen and mature a marriage.
   Marriage therapists today often seek to correct the myth that having a baby will make a couple happier. They point out correctly that infants can add tremendous new stress to a marriage and aren’t a good prescription for turning a bad marriage into a good one. What couples don’t hear enough, however, is that letting their love spill over into a new life can give them a fresh sense of purpose in their marriage. Parenting requires couples to adjust expectations about their sex life, their sleep patterns and their ability to embark on last minute dates, but the parenting mission can mature and sweeten a marriage over the years when a couple commits to do it "as unto the Lord".
   Yes, having children will change your marriage, but you can trust that God designed your marriage to grow and deepen through that change. The marriage ceremony in older versions of the Book of Common Prayer explains that marriage was ordained for " mutual society, help, and comfort", but it also says that marriage was ordained " for the procreation of children". God didn’t design those reasons for marriage to contradict each other. With His grace and wisdom, you can have both kids and a great marriage.