Today we are talking about some of the challenges blended families face. Though none of us come from blended family situations, we do shepherd blended families in our congregation. With over one-third of marriages now resulting in blended families, the church needs to be involved in encouraging and ministering to these families. We discuss how we can better love and minister to blended families in our church.

Blended families face many of the same challenges that traditional families face, but often with the added challenges of parenting step-children and complicated expectations. As in any marriage, regular prayer and communication are vital to a thriving blended family marriage.

In a blended family, it can be tempting to have a child-centered marriage, but it is important to make a unified marriage the priority, while still pursuing the hearts of your children and step-children.

As a church, we can help to support the blended families by including them and recognizing that they may face additional struggles in their family dynamics. Children may be living in different homes at different times of the year. We can reach out to these children and include them when they are attending our churches. Parents may be struggling when their children are living with another parent. We can sympathize and encourage them through these circumstances.