Date

12-7-2023

Department

School of Behavioral Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Education in Community Care and Counseling (EdD)

Chair

Jason K Ward

Keywords

prayer, religious faith, marriage, love, respect, Christian

Disciplines

Counseling | Religion

Abstract

This study explored the relationship of Christian religious couples between marital prayer, either with spouse or for spouse, and the Biblical directive found in the New Testament that husbands and wives should both love and respect their spouse. Previous research is explored which finds multiple benefits religiosity and prayer have upon a couple’s relationship. The benefits of religiosity include couples view marriage as sacred and God as their moral authority which produces higher marital satisfaction and marital commitment. Benefits of relational prayer include increased trust, increased marital satisfaction, increased forgiveness, higher ability to resolve marital conflict, lower marital infidelity, higher accountability, a promoter of relational change, positive psychological well-being, and health benefits. Prayer is also found to be a tool to improve and strengthen relationships. Love and respect has not been studied often, but the few studies find couples view these concepts as necessary in the marital relationship. Due to the gap in research of prayer’s impact upon love and respect, Christian couples have been recruited from religious faith leaders to participate in thirty days of prayer with or for their spouse. Prior to the study and after the study, participants were given the Love and Respect Marriage Scale (LRMS) to determine how marital prayer impacts love and respect in marriage. Based upon positive results of relational prayer, it is hypothesized that love and respect in marriage will be positively impacted.

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