The husband buries himself in the work of his ministry or wearily gives up altogether. When brokenness occurs in a marriage, pain and loss always follow. A marriage is never an island to itself. There are always family members and friends who are affected by the success or failure of every marriage. A ministry marriage has an even greater ripple affect on the lives of people, not only because of its position, but also because of its message.
Marriage is a covenant.
Not only is a ministry marriage under view of the public eye, the message of covenant commitment that it proclaims is as well. It is a nation that expects its ministers to either demonstrate the power of covenant commitment in their marriages or quit talking about it. Covenant in the Scripture is very significant. When God made a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15, He had Abraham sacrifice animals by cutting them into two pieces and then had a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appear and pass between the two pieces. Covenant making was so important to God that He demonstrated its importance with the price of shed blood.