Topics
For those whose spouses are deployed:
- When your spouse is deployed, how often do you feel lonely or isolated? When do these feelings typically occur?
- How do you cope when you feel overwhelmed by loneliness?
- Tell me about your daily routine. How well are you managing to keep the household running? Are you taking care of yourself and your children by getting plenty of sleep and eating proper meals? What areas do you know you need to improve on?
- Do your feelings of isolation and loneliness stem from being separated or did you have some of these same issues before deployment? Could there be something else adding to these feelings?
- What can each of you do to limit sexual temptations from causing infidelity in your marriage?
- Who do you have to hold you accountable for your actions during deployments or periods of isolation? How honest have you been with them?
- How do you think God would want you to respond in these circumstances?
For those whose spouses have extended duty:
- Consider the possibility there is may be more to your loneliness and isolation than just the fact your spouse has extended duty. Can you remember when you began to feel isolated and lonely? Was it connected to anything besides the longer hours?
- Is the current assignment/extended duty temporary or is there an end in sight?
- Do you know how your spouse feels about the current assignment and the long hours away from home and family?
- What are your feelings about your spouse, the assignment and the extended duty? Have you shared this with your spouse in a loving manner? How does your spouse respond to this?
- Are you harboring any bitterness regarding this situation? Are you open to confessing this bitterness to your spouse and then asking for your spouse’s forgiveness as well as the Lord’s?
- Who do you know (another couple) that can help you both through this season of your lives? Is there someone who has had a similar life experience?
- What have you done to help alleviate your feelings of loneliness and isolation? How can I come alongside to help?