 Good morning everyone. How are you doing today? We praise God for giving us a privilege to come in the house of worship this morning. And we also want to thank God for the Rains. Personally, I've been praying for the Rains in Kenya. 2016, we had a wonderful Renful Parton along the way things have changed. But we praise God that there is Ren again. What do we say? Thank you pastor for the wonderful welcome and together with your team of elders. Today I came with Pastor Rigan Musunda. Pastor, would you just stand and greet the church? Thank you so much. That is Pastor Musunda. Pastor Musunda is pastoring in Kitwe in the Northern Zambia Union on the copper belt. For today, indulge me to ask you that if you came with your spouse and they are within the walls of this church please just migrate and locate them. If you came with your spouse, please just find where your spouse is and sit with them. Because our journey today demands that we fasten our seat belts. The flight will have some tablances but there is nothing much to worry about. Can we get a hymn as people are trying to settle? I can see some movements. Yes please. But you should remember what we read. Somewhere we read in the text that so shall a who, a man, leave his mother and father. If we were to contextualize would say so shall a man leave his pew to go and find his wife and together they sit. Maybe we can do happy the home just the last stanza. But joining us via whatever platform that you may be joining us with I will ask you also to just sit together as spouses as we go through our presentation today. Thank you, musicians. Six-five-five together. Let us pray together. Holy Father we are grateful because you are God who loves us so much. You created us as human beings and you have given us families. We pray may you grant us the grace to listen to your word. It is our asking in Jesus' Holy Name. Amen. Thank you so much. Our title this morning is a commitment of a lifetime. Commitment of a lifetime. I would want to blend in a number of things together that may have been and should have been tackled through the week but because of the limitation of time and the planning, the programs around we will try to fit in the two days that we have had. I told you last week that I prefer doing this presentation with my wife who carries the aspect of mental health. In a journal, clinical journal and diagnostic research, in 2014 there is an article by Rashil Mustak and three others which is entitled relationship between loneliness, psychiatric disorders and physical health, a review on the psychological aspects of loneliness. The three conducted their research in India and their introduction, they argue that human beings are social species which require self and secure social surroundings to survive and this is not any true than we can believe as believers. Satisfying social relationships are essential for mental and physical well-being and they concluded that impaired social relationships can lead to loneliness. When our social well-being is unhealthy, then it triggers mental disorders. Since the time of dawn, loneliness is perceived as a global human phenomenon. Loneliness can lead to various psychiatric disorders like depression, alcohol abuse, child abuse, sleep problems or sleep disorders, personality disorders and Alzheimer's disease. They also argued that it also leads to various physical disorders like diabetes, autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and cardiovascular diseases like coronary heart disease, hypertension, obesity, physiological aging, cancer, poor hearing and poor health. What is this thing that is causing all this? Loneliness. Further, the research gives us insight that if left unattended, loneliness can have serious consequences for mental and physical health on people. Therefore, it is important that there is an intervention of some sort in this kind of scenario so that good health is maintained. Their argument further goes that loneliness is painful, is a painful universal phenomenon that has an evolutionary basis. Loneliness reminds us of the pains and wants us of the threats of becoming isolated. But much more, loneliness is the absence of imperative social relations and lack of affection in current social relationships. Loneliness is one of the main indicators of social well-being. Loneliness is caused not by being alone, but by being without some definite needed relationships or set of relations. Let us pause a little there and understand the frame in which they are developing their ideas. One of the important things that the research raises is that loneliness reminds us of pains that we have experienced in the past, in the moment and perceived pain in the future. Loneliness also reminds us and warns us about potential threats of becoming isolated from the rest. And their important argument is that it is not necessarily that you are lonely because you are alone. You are lonely because where you are, your social needs are not being met within the confines of your interactions. Could it be also true that you could be in a marriage where you have everything, but yet you are terribly lonely? Could it be that in a world where we have so many social relations, so many connections, we are living in a time when we are so lonely as human beings? And you see you can tell the loneliness of people when you are able to chat with someone on social media, on WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, name it, you are able to chat with somebody. But you see somebody cannot see the grief, the pain that you are going through. You see there is this, I don't know, I call it a nonsense of contemporary society. I'm asking you for your phone and you can borrow his phone so that you come. Borrow his phone and come. You see we are living in a society. No, no, don't even switch it on. It's okay. Just come with it. Come, come, come. We are living in a society. Maybe we needed a woman. Maybe we needed a woman. Madam, come, come. Come also. And come, come. There is a phone here for you. No, no, no, no. Please, this is for illustration purposes. Let it not go beyond what madam here is a phone. We live in a society where these two could be married and they reach in a living room together. And in their living room, get your phones. There is a TV screen in front of them. Are we there? There is a TV screen in front of them and they are practicing as if they are watching something. But they are busy on their what? Keep chatting. And you see as they are on the social media, they are smiling to their phones. But they cannot smile at each other. And because of, you see, they are present in a living room but absent from each other. And this is the sad reality that many couples are going through in their homes. In fact, while they are here and they are smiling, the moment that Who would want to start anything? Any conversation? Even about picking children from school. He didn't pick the children from school. So tell him. No, no, no. They are speaking because they are speaking like this because they are in a 7th grade district. If it was in a normal setup, from a smile on a phone to a frown on a face in response to someone who is physically present. See, Mami, did you pick the children today? No, I didn't pick the children from school. She is a Christian. What happened? She is a Christian because if she was really a wife in a home, she would have answered. Do you think I don't have anything to do? It's only children that you want me to be picking. Why didn't you pick them yourself? You could have called me. We agreed you are supposed to pick them today. Now why don't you go and pick them? I don't think I have the time to go and pick them. But then immediately after that, continue smiling on your phone. Thank you so much. My brothers and sisters, this might sound and seem as if it is not somebody's reality. Somebody could be experiencing exactly what we have just demonstrated. People are living together, sharing a space but they don't connect to each other as husband and wife. My brothers and sisters, I wish to remind us. Thank you so much. That there is a possibility that we are just sharing space and we are not committed to each other. In fact, people today are more married to their phones than they are married to each other as husband and wife. Isolating ourselves from an important tapestry which is called marriage. We are dividing ourselves of the important interaction that must characterize our social well-being. So my brothers and sisters, when these relationships are not yielding the desired fruit of happiness, the desired fruit of joy, the desired fruit of serenity, the desired fruit of peace, then there is loneliness in most homes. Could it be that it is possible that husband and wife are just partners in rearing children and also not even partners in raising children? The only thing that they are able to do is to potentially get pregnant, to deliver a child and the child would grow by the wind around. Brothers and sisters, these are important matters that we must begin to reflect as a society, as human beings, communities, as nations, because the bedrock of every society are the families that compose the societies. Brothers and sisters, I want us to remember that from the research they give us three types of loneliness. Number one is situational loneliness. And they define this as one that has various factors which are associated with situational loneliness. And these can be environmental factors and pleasant experiences, discrepancies between the levels of needs, the migration of people, but importantly also is interpersonal conflicts. Number two is developmental loneliness. They argue that the various factors associated with developmental loneliness are personal inadequacies, where this person feels they are inadequate to sustain a relationship or they are not helping in the relationship the best where they can. Developmental deficits, let me speak on this one. Husbands and wives. Please, if you married each other and one has a certificate and the other one has a diploma, carry yourselves along on the developmental ladder. If you entered into a marriage relationship with a bachelor's degree, keep moving up together. Let there be no big space between husband and wife and wife and husband. We must move together because as one gets to develop higher than the other, let me tell you the truth. The truth is your status in society makes you change your friends. You will be attracted by society within which you interact. And you don't want your spouse to be an absent, present individual. They are just there and they cannot contribute to the discussion. You need to help and build each other from one level to another so that the developmental ladder begins to be systematic on both ends. Young people contemplating marriage. Your aim is to get a PhD. Aim also for your spouse to get a PhD. And provide the necessary environment for them to grow because it will somehow show in your marriage. Today you are in problem. Today she is in problem. You don't want this situation to happen. We are meeting with colleagues in an environment. Madam, pretend that you are absent and you don't even know what is happening here. So, how are you sir? My name is Brian and I work for that business. This is my business card and this is my wife, Greta. Good morning. You don't know how to speak even English. Good morning ma'am. How are you doing? She is very fine. So, how do you think about that project? We need to close the deal. We are happy about the development so far. Where is the wife? Why do you think the husband has come between the wife and the conversation? Developmental discrepancies. You need a spouse when it comes to matters of discussion, she comes closer. And you say, oh by the way, that program it was not started necessarily by me but it was a joint program we started together as a family. Ma'am, this is the man I told you about. Yes, so this is the man who we are about to sign a contract with. Good to meet you. I am glad to meet you today. I have been hearing so much about the projects your husband is involved in. You see the discussion? Do you make sense of what is happening here? You leave your spouse away. There is also a possibility that the one who takes the front stage is what? The wife. And the husband is on the clueless side of things. And the husband is lost even in the discussion. There is no meaningful conversation that can be held. My brothers and sisters, what if we developed together? We built it up together. We lifted up each other. We brought each other to a level where we can be able to be proud about us. Thank you so much. Maybe you can sit closer madam. You see there are times that you will greet someone and they don't even introduce their spouse. And then you observe and say, this woman has been trailing this man. And you ask sir, is this your husband? Just imagine. That's the response. Is this your husband? Is this your wife? Just imagine. It means you are not even proud about the person you are married to. Number three is internal loneliness. The various factors associated with internal loneliness are personality factors. Locusts of control, mental distresses, loss of esteem, guilty feeling, poor coping strategies with different situations. Now in all the three levels of loneliness, either situational, developmental or internal loneliness, they are striking similarities that tells of the importance of relationships. Most of them are stemming from relational perspectives. It's either in situational loneliness, there is interpersonal conflict, conflict between husband and wife. In developmental loneliness, there is significant separation that may be seen. In internal loneliness, there can be mental distresses and the guilty feelings that may arise. That may also injure and puncture the esteem of an individual. Now let me summing up the research. The research has said, loneliness is a common experience with 80% of the population below 18 years of age and 40% of the population above 65 years of age report loneliness at least some time in their lives. I want to suggest my brothers and sisters that loneliness is in the church of God as well. You know it is also in the church where you come and greet each other. Happy Sabbath? The church has forgotten how to respond. Happy Sabbath? Happy day. The moment they turn their face away, it is a frowning face. People are lonely. Sometimes people may respond in a very unpalatable way to you because of what they are feeling inside them. There is a volcano that is almost about to erupt in their lives. They don't know how to handle their situation. But my brothers and sisters, I want us to remember that humanity are social creatures and celibacy was not part of the divine intent for humanity. That is why God when he had made Adam recognize his loneliness and he said it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make her helper suitable for him in verse 18 of Genesis chapter 2. The amplified Bible version even puts it clearer. When he says now the Lord God said it is not beneficial for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper. One who balances him. A counterpart who is suitable and complementary for him. Listen my brothers and sisters. God designed this marriage relationship to be of mutual benefit for both husband and wife. The husband's money is what? Is our money and the wife's money? It's you who said it, it's not me. Remember God has brought you that when you are two of you, you put yourselves together. You put your resources together. You will achieve more than you can do with a single land income. You see it is just also as an example. You have identified a portion of land and it's costing you 1000 shillings. It's just an example. 1000 shillings and his money is our money. My money is my money. And the husband's salary for example is only 500 shillings. And it is in that 500 shillings that he has to provide for everything. If you don't work together you will still remain at the same level of life. Unless someone begins to do some magic outside what is normal. And you see it is just a matter of time when you begin to create magically your money from sources that you cannot be able to validate. It is just a matter of time the law will face you. And if the law faces you the rest of the family suffers. But if we are to work together the Bible says this person who comes into a marriage relationship a spouse is brought in order that they may balance the other spouse. Let me tell you about the balance from... I wish my wife was here so that she could tell us also the balance from a woman's perspective. Look my brothers and sisters if when I was single in my room I could reach and do this. And that is what? That is enough. I could get my stockings and throw them anyhow. But when she comes in she will tell you shoes are not supposed to be thrown anyhow. Mothers that thing you teach us from when we are children it still works. She will begin to put things in order. She will begin to tell you spoons don't sit here. Spoons are supposed to be put here. You see that balance that starts from home. It is a balance that you even begin to exemplify in society. We thank our women because they bring some level of sanity in our lives. Which if we did not have them. You see even how we relate when you are married with people it is very different. Because you know when I am preaching and I know I am sure my wife is watching right now. So I need to be very careful as I tread on this ground. When you are having your interactions you have the way that you communicate to your spouse. And when you look at them and they give you feedback. You have the way to thermostat yourself. You regulate yourself. It is same my brothers and sisters. The Bible is the one that says these women bring balance. It was a divine intentionality that when they come in our life there is balance and stability. While they may be fragile. While they may be emotionally weaker than us. While they may not be as masculine as we are. They bring balance. Amen. My brothers and sisters out of loneliness in marriage. We see untold miseries happening in our homes. And as such the Genesis account of the first marriage that we read in chapter 2 verse 24 concludes. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. Here is the assumption that we face at first value. And it assumes that the one living is a person who has reached manhood. What does this entail my brothers and sisters? It is only when someone has reached a status of maturity and this maturity has to be holistic maturity. I want to remind us that the text is suggesting that marriage has certain components that must be measurable if one has to enter into them. Number one physical maturity. A person must be physically mature in body appearance and in their well-being. Number two they must be emotionally stable. You don't want to marry a man when things are hard madam. He is the very first one to start doing what? You start crying and start calling mommy. No mommy this woman has not cooked for me today. No, that is a person who is not yet mature. Let me even go a step further my brothers on this matter. There are times that we exemplify lack of maturity when at every step of making decisions in our homes we have to consult our parent. You are already a parent and you are consulting other parents. And even in that consultation you have not involved your wife. So your mother and your father have the first say before your wife. Lack of emotional intelligence, lack of emotional maturity. We must remember that when we are together we are more stable than we can be apart from each other. Number three it entails social stability. Look my brothers and sisters. That old adage the beautiful ones are not yet born let me call in another one. The handsome ones and the masculine ones are not yet born. There will still be some young people who will come up and you begin looking at them and think, when is my spouse going to die so that I change? But when you reach a level where your mind is solid, your mind is resolved, your social relations are tamed. If you are a sister Jen and a sister Mary and you have chosen to be with sister Kwanboka. I don't know if there is Kwanboka here but you have chosen this particular sister. You have to be resolved that come Jen, come whoever. I will not focus on them. My attention is to this person I have resolved to be with. No matter how good they can look, they will even look prettier after you marry. When you marry, when reality kicks in and now she is no longer coming or cleaned up from her home, from her parents home. It is now the reality of you and her seeing her from the scratch of her creating herself beautiful. Then you begin to ask yourself, where are my eyes seeing clearly? Yes, they were clear. Just that you were not there when she was baking herself so that she can come and appear before you. Now reality is you have to deal with what you have decided to be with. Brothers and sisters, there is need for social maturity in our context. If we begin to be socially mature, we cannot talk about issues of infidelity. And the last one is that there must be a psychological maturity where the mind has been developed to be stable enough to make sound judgments and sound decisions. This is what it entails. Marriage therefore my brothers and sisters is not for children. No adolescents, but for those who are mature, age appropriate to legally and anatomically and physiologically capable of handling my ritual duties. This is the preserve of mature individuals. That is why my brothers and sisters, children or adolescents who cannot be medically proven to be fit for marriage should not be forced into any marriages. For whatever reason, whether it be a benefit factor from the family, you know, marriages can also be, especially in our context, in our contemporary times, can be a source of revenue for the family. We have suffered too much. There is this man who has come with a prado and he has loved one of our daughters. Our daughters is underage. What is the age appropriate for marriage in this country? 18 years. Our daughter is 16, but you see when you look at her physically, she seems like she has grown. Therefore, we will get money from this tycoon who will siphon money so that we can stabilize. By the way, I have learned that dowry money does not make you rich overnight. You cannot become a tycoon no matter how many female children you have. You cannot become a billionaire and a millionaire. That money, when it comes, it has a way that it disappears. And you begin asking yourself, did I get so many thousands and millions of shillings from my daughter's marriage? I don't even know where it is. You realize that you have not even bought a shed that you intended to buy. My brothers, I appeal to you, as a conscious of society, let's speak against child marriages. Children are not yet ready for them to handle relationships. My brothers and sisters, I want us to remember that when the Bible says the man shall live to cleave, it has three implications. Number one, living to cleave is a spiritual responsibility. It might be and it might seem as if you have just loved your partner and you want to have this social life with your partner. But I want to remind you that marriage is much a spiritual responsibility as an act of worship. One of the duties of marriage partners is to help each other in spiritual growth. It is for this reason that the belief system is important in the choice of the marriage partner. Paul clearly points out in 2 Corinthians 16 verse 14, do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. There must be some common ground of belief system that you can engage in. Let us also remember, my brothers and sisters, that as we go into this institution called marriage, there is a possibility that God will give you children. The question is, what type of a generation would you love to live behind? Is it a generation that does not fear God or a generation that honors God? God has instructed his children, especially to Israel in Eutero 7 verse 3. You shall not make marriages with in-heathens and Gentiles. You shall not give your daughters to their son, nor take their daughters for your son. Brothers and sisters, the most important foundation is there must be some common ground in terms of religious beliefs. It is just a matter of time when you begin to realize that religion implies an important part in unifying a marriage. You see, I don't know about you, but I think it would be better to have a spouse when things are hard. They will tell you, mama, let's sit down, let's kneel down, let's pray, and let God calm our navels, and God has this in control. Then to have a spouse when things are hard, a child is not forthcoming and it is fifth year of your marriage. And then he tells you, at the village there is a ganga, you call them ganga here? They're which doctor? Muganga. There is a Muganga at my village. Let's go and approach them. And you see, they have pointed at you, they have daunted you, and all that you are praying for is the foot of the womb. God, when will a child call in my womb? And nothing is coming up. You have gone from prayer band one to prayer band two. You have finished all the prayer bands. You have prayed with pastors. You have prayed with whoever that you can pray with. Nothing is coming up. And then you hear whisperings. You know, we told you you could have married from the village, our village. These young ladies who you find in Nairobi, they don't want to have children, but you come at the village. When you go to the village, they have organized for you. All you need to do is to just avail yourself, make yourself available. Once you make yourself available, they will tell you, you know, she has started spitting. Are we hearing? She has started doing what? Spitting at the village. You are a man. No, there is now at least a baby at home. And then this one was failed to conceive in a home. You begin to look down upon them. They are not human being enough. You begin to abuse them by words. You begin to ill treat them because they have not carried the baby in their home. In fact, there is a story that was told to me. A couple lived for 11 years without a child. And you see the family influenced the man to divorce the wife on flimsy grounds because she could not bear a child. And so when they divorced, the man went and married somewhere. And the woman went and also got married somewhere. Within six months of marriage, the woman, the other side, started walking like this. You know what that means. Whereas the man, where he had married, the future was not clear. There was no hope of ever a woman doing what, walking like this. Then the family began to realize, ah, we thought the woman was the problem. You see, when God is removed from the decisions of marriage, we will blame everyone and anything. And we will not remember to do a self-introspection. What is my contribution to this? My brothers and sisters marriage is a spiritual institution. That is why a spiritual worldview is necessary for Christian life. In fact, where you will find this exemplified clearly is in the story of Naomi and Ruth. When Ruth had seen and witnessed the experience of her mother-in-law. And you know, out of all that she learned, she just comes to conclude and says, your God will be my God. That was more important to this woman than going back to the Moabites and being married to a gentle person. Brothers and sisters, church must be taken seriously. Number two, to live and to cleave entails to let go of childish behaviors. What are these childish behaviors? You know, my brothers and sisters, when you marry, your confidant is your wife. No matter how much your parents can love you, yes, they are so dear to you, they give birth to you. But there are certain things that starts and ends within the boundaries of your marital confines. Just like I want to also echo this, there is no way that any little thing that happens don't think your parents have never had issues in their marriage. They've had issues in their marriage. The biggest problem that we have had and why marriages I think are failing to hold is this aspect. You see, many of us grew up in an environment where we never saw our parents have differences and they resolved them. Can anyone testify that I grew up in a home where I never saw my parents argue? Is it true? I need feedback at this point. Is it true? Yes, for many of us. You know, what that does is because the child never knew how U.S. parents are able to handle healthy conflicts and resolve them and still remain as husband and wife. When they go into their marriage, they begin to experience challenges and the only way is this never used to happen in my parents' home, then I will abort. Abort mission, divorce, know that even your parents have gone through difficult times but they were brave enough to resolve those differences and still held each other in love and communion together and they raised you up. So when children come back to you and tell you, ah, no, I failed marriage, you just tell them, okay, you have done well, let me cook for you. And you cook for them, they eat, after they eat, tell them, carry your bag, follow me, take them back and go and tell them the truth and say, I equally experienced the same problems unless where life is threatened. That's when you can tolerate. Not any little thing, any little thing you have to report to mommy and dad. You are grown up, you are in a marriage now. Brothers and sisters, number three, living to cleave means the physical living of parents to join a spouse is also suggestive of financial freedom and independence. Not every time, mommy's door, kong kong kong kong. Mommy, we have come to ask for money for umga. No, we didn't buy a flower for chapat. We just wanted the door to be had, no. What this entails is you as a family must live together, organize yourselves so that you are able to meet your monthly expenses, your other expenses. You need to be financially sound and stable together. When a man and woman have agreed to take a step in of matrimony, they should be sure that they have an established financial system that is independent of their families. Not when your families see you, the only thing they know is, ah, here comes the beggar. Brothers and sisters, we are to remain financially stable. Ellen White has this to say. The father should not excuse himself from his part in the work of educating his children for this life, for life and immortality. He must share in the responsibility. The obligation for both father and mother. There must be love and respect manifested by parents to one another. If they would see these qualities develop in their children. Adventist home page 216. So what is the counsel that Ellen White gives to men? Which I want to bring to us today. Number one, as a man in a marriage, remember your job is to unify. You are a unifier. You are the one that holds the family together. You bring everyone whether they may be considered stupid in the family. You are the one who bridges these differences. You are the bridge on which people are to cross. You remember, you also reminded that you are a source of strength, physical, emotional and spiritual strength. So as a man, you've got to own up. That is why the title of any man in a home, he is the king. And the king must be brave to make decisions. But all the time, the king is indecided. The home doesn't even know which direction to go. Remember my brothers, that you are not a border in your house. You see, they are husbands who live in their own homes as if they are borders. They go out in the morning and wake all day and all evening. And then only come at the point when it is two minutes for the family to sleep. And they go only into their bedroom, sleep early in the morning there out. The son has never seen you at your house. You need to be a present parent. And so in order to build all this, be careful with your words. Refine your mannerisms. Practice spiritual courtesy. Deal with your spouse gently because she is the one who receives the first blessing from you. Men, it is time to own up to our responsibility in our homes. I don't know why it further says that the husbands aid his wife by his sympathy and unfailing affection. If he wishes to keep her fresh, how many husbands want to keep their wives fresh? I know we all want to keep our wives fresh and glass them so that she will be as sunshine in the home. Let him help her bear her burdens. His kindness and his loving courtesy will be to her a precious encouragement. And the happiness he will impart will bring joy and peace to his own heart. So when we make our wives happy, it is in turn we are doing justice to our own happiness. My brothers and sisters, my brothers especially, we have to own up to this standard that God has called us. And why it further says a husband is a healing down. And they should manifest great interest in their family. Especially should he be very tender of the feelings of his feeble wife. You see, society already has taught us that women are weak. And we must be strong for them. We must be careful as we handle their delicate hearts. He can shut, when we are this, Ellen White says, we can shut the door against much disease. Kind, cheerful and encouraging words will prove more effective than the most healing medicine. Hallelujah somebody. You as a husband, you can be a healing bound for your wife emotionally, physically, psychologically, and in whatever sphere you, when you provide the support. What does, what counsel do we get for our women? Listen to this. The mothers are God's agents for Christianizing the family. You see women, God has endowed upon you the vitals to impart Christian vitals in our children. You spend more time with them. You spend a little more interaction with them. And therefore, as we grow ourselves, women, as you grow yourself as spiritual giants in the presence of God, you also impart the same vitals into your children around you. You don't know what the world owes godly women. Women who are bringing up and raising up a generation that is different. When they see chaos and disaster in society, they are praying, God help me raise a child that will stand firm like Daniel. Women who would raise unflinching men, men who stand for the right for the heavens before. Women who develop advocates of truth and spiritual reforms. Where are the women? Who by them and their character, God builds bored and daring men? Men raised of godly women are likely to stand unshaken and miss the trials and temptations of this time. I want you to remind, to be reminded, women and wives present in this place. But women of nobility stand behind men who choose the higher and holy interests of truth. And the glory of God before worldly owners of life itself. It is your duty. And we must take care from the child from the time we know we are expecting a child. We begin the nurturing process. Let us not weak in this, let us not relent in this matter. So I want to remind somebody in this place, women arise as a woman of God. Stop nagging and realize your divine potential. Arise woman of strength, face life difficulties and emotional stresses with the power of prayer. Arise woman of victory, raise your hands in the praise of the great I AM. I want to remind a woman in this place, arise woman of courage. Let the whispering of God's voice give you hope and courage. I want to challenge somebody in this place. Woman arise from the mediocre settlement of anything around you and settling for anything. But to a virtuous life that is enthroned in Proverbs chapter 31. Arise woman and be the champion of your family. This afternoon I want to appeal to somebody, a husband and wife. I want to challenge you. This is not a time to begin the blame game. But it is a time to enter into the prayer room together as husband and wife. When difficult moments are there, go down on your knees as a couple. Pray that God will unfold and revel the complexities you are going through and the God of faithfulness will listen to your prayers because he is interested in this institution called marriage. Husband and wife, don't overgrow and out age each other. You may be parents, you may be grandparents, but to each other remain forever young. God desires your happiness as a couple. This afternoon I want to pray for you as couples. I may not know the status of your marriage, but I want to commit you into the hands of the Lord because grace is only fought with prayer. You are standing as couples in a very special way. I will ask you as couples to stand and you are holding each other's hand firmly so that we pray together. I also want to remind us that after this, after this, wives, you will be the ones to report. I don't know when last someone here was told I love you. I don't remember last time someone was told you are beautiful. You look beautiful to me. You may have aged, but you still look as young as when I first met you. Oh, what a wonderful bliss and atmosphere it will give that woman. But I also want to challenge a husband here. There are times you take your families out for dinner, lunch, whatever that you can take, but this time leave your children out of the picture. Take each other, the two of you. Walk in the streets of Nairobi. Enjoy just the freedom. Children aside, enjoy the freedom and walk together to some restaurant somewhere. Go and buy some soda and a bun. Enjoy your life, the two of you, that the Lord of Grace may reignite the love and the passion. It is my prayer that after these encounters, the Lord of Grace will bless your marriages. Stand together with me as we pray.