I will call this young lady Priscilla.  Priscilla was one of two children in a middle class Indian family.  She was educated in an English medium school until fifth grade when her mother died.  Her father owned his own business and kept the daughter with him as much as he could.  She dropped out of school and during her teen years and ran away with a boyfriend with whom she had conceived a child.  Meantime the father died.

Several years later Priscilla heard the gospel and learned that living in a common-law marriage was not according to God’s plan for families.  She took the child and left to live alone.  The preacher’s family and church members helped her as much as they could to stay aloof from old friends who might influence her to go back into the world.

Later, Priscilla met a man she thought would be a good husband and father to the child she already had, although he was not a Christian.  They married and had another child of their own.  Not long after the youngest daughter had her second birthday, Priscilla found out the husband had another wife.  She immediately left him and gave the child to his family.  Her reason for leaving the younger daughter with his family was so he would not keep coming to visit and thus present additional temptation.  Later he brought the girl back saying his family did not want her.  Now Priscilla has two daughters to train and provide for and worries what will become of her and their lives.  She is able to work at a fairly good job while the two daughters are in school and so far has been able to support them and herself.  She definitely has moral support from the congregation where she attends.

Questions:

1. What is Priscilla’s present marital status according to scripture?
2. Did God join her to the man who already had a living wife?
3. To abide by the law, she needs to either get a legal divorce from the father of her second child or have the marriage annulled?  Since God did not join her to a man who already had a wife, should she get a divorce or an annulment?
4. What hope, what counsel, do the scriptures offer Priscilla?
5. What do the scriptures say about someone who has never been married before?
6. What should we learn from this situation regarding the marital status of the one we plan to marry?
7. Seeing that they have witnessed their mother’s bad judgment, what special moral training should Priscilla give to her two girls?