Page 3 - Family Life Student Textbook

Family Life

Introduction:

During this course we want use God’s word to learn and apply His principles for family life. This is not only
important for life, but it is a very important part of the Christian life. As Christian leaders we want to be a
model in our family life for other people to follow.

In this book we will do our best to apply these principles from God’s word to your culture. The principles of
God’s word are the same for everyone and apply to every culture. The details of these applications may vary
a bit from culture to culture, but the principles of God’s word are unchangeable, and our culture needs to
adapt to these principles.

Goals for the Course

Our goal is to learn the principles of family life found in God’s Word and change our lives accordingly.

First, we want this class to affect your life in such a way that you will enjoy the marriage and the parenting
experience that God intends. Because the Bible is God’s instruction book for our marriage, we need to
understand its principles and allow them to guide our marriage relationship. In this way we can have the
good marriage which God intends. Because God’s word has much to say about how we raise our children
and how to prepare the next generation, we want to study these principles so that we can be the best
parents possible. Our children’s lives will be affected by our application of this course. Even as they watch
your godly marriage you will be investing in their future marriage.

Secondly, as Christian leaders you will be teaching these principles to others. They will learn these principles
from you as you teach, as you preach, and as you counsel. This course will help you improve your pre-
marriage counseling for couples about to get married. It will help you as you counsel married couples trying
to improve their relationship. And even more importantly, others will learn from you as their model as they
watch your relationship.

Therefore, I challenge you to be willing to recognize areas where your culture needs to change. And you, as
Christian leaders, will be in the best position to help bring about those important changes. Therefore, I want
to encourage you to be honest about what God’s word teaches and not interpret the principles of God’s
word through your culture. But rather, to allow the principles of God’s word to change your culture. Much of
what we believe and practice in family life is affected by our culture, but God’s word is the authority. And we
must give it preeminence in affecting our own philosophies of family life and how we live and interact with
the other people in our family.

We have had the privilege of teaching these principles to people in various countries of the world. We
remember one particular couple who studied in one of our classes. As they learned what God’s Word taught
about marriage and family life they communicated to the entire class that they now realized God intends for
these marriage principles to apply to every culture and therefore, they were now determined to return
home to their culture and turn the philosophy of marriage upside down. And their marriage became such a
good model that people, including unbelievers, would come to their home to study these marriage
principles in order to have a marriage more like the marriage of this couple.

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