Marriage Intimacy And Christian Counseling - Faulkner University - Paper

Running head: MARRIAGE, INTIMACY, AND LOVE IN CHRISTIAN COUNSELING 1
MARRIAGE, INTIMACY, AND LOVE IN CHRISTIAN COUNSELING 2 2
Marriage, Intimacy, and Love in Christian Counseling
Abstract
The purpose and intent of this paper is to discuss what love, intamcy, and marriage entails and how Christian counseling can help restore broken relationships. Too often life gets busy and hectic schedules can be overwhelming. Relationships feel the stress and tension and begin to crumble. Relationships need guidance and purpose but more importantly they need God at the center. Christian counselors understand the importance of a relationship with God and how it influences all other relationships. Christian counselors should have biblical knowledge on what God say’s a marriage is to be and know the importance of a covenant. They also need to be aware of God’s grace and mercy for when one does fall short and needs forgiveness. In counseling, one should be able to vent, cry, and share their emotions freely. The counselor is there to listen and evaluate the needs of the individual and help them to make decisions to better their lives and mental health.
Keywords: intimacy, relationship, God, communication, connection, restoration, covenant, forgiveness
Marriage, Intimacy, and Love in Christian Counseling
Relationships weigh so heavily on how people think, feel, and act. They are a necessity in life and can impact ones mental health. Christian counseling is aware of the importance of how relationships affect mental health. They also emphasize how a relationship with Christ helps in restoration with broken relationships. Christian counseling should understand what God’s design for marriage, intimacy, and love is and how those three things are to mirror what a relationship with Him should look like.
Marriage is more then a union between two people. Marriage is a covenant with God. It’s a lifelong commitment that brings two together to become one. In Genesis 2:24 “for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh”(NIV). A covenant is not about self but about the other involved. It’s the husband vowing the wife’s needs above his own, and the wife vowing his needs above her own. They vow to each other to be one in flesh with God as the head of their household. In truth, “marriages have seasons, times when connection is easy and times when it seems impossible” (Clinton & Sibcy, 2006, P.194). In those impossible times, marriages lose focus and can be willing to break their covenant with God. When that connection has been fractured, there is sometimes a need for outside help. Christian counseling can be beneficial to those who desire to save th...