The church in the urban area of Jingshan County, Hubei Province has designated May to June each year as family months. During the nine Sunday services in these two months, the pastor shares information about marriage and family.
On June 28, Rev. Sun Fengli shared the four points on the theme of "Managing a Blessed Family".
Whether we are married or not, marriage and family are very important to each of us. In recent years, more social organizations have begun to pay attention to family issues and hope to give guidance on how to build a happy family that is blessed by God. (cf. Genesis 2:18-24)
When you look at conflict in marriage and families, it is obvious that most couples need to deal with many issues: raising children, taking care of older family members, work and career, and financial needs. When dealing with these issues, couples are inclined to deviate from the problem itself and attack faults in each other’s character. Their biggest problem is not money, nor communication, or even marriage, but, in fact, the lack of God as first in their lives. For this reason, everyone wants others to agree with their own ideas, and this leads to arguments.
Sinners are self-centered, but love is altruistic. How can the Christian faith change a self-centered person into one who is altruistic? The first discipline is to "have the same mindset as Christ Jesus". If we can train our minds to be like Christ as the basis of our faith, then we can learn to more easily love and accept others unconditionally, which is a necessary part of a successful marriage.
The order in the family is: the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, and God is the head of Christ. A blessed family requires everyone to be in the right position. If not, the family will have problems.
If we value our spouses from a biblical perspective we can resolve many conflicts. Some people may say: “He is really not as good as I am. How can I value him above myself?" God did not create a perfect person and put all the good characteristics into only one person. If he is weaker than I am in this aspect, then he is stronger in some other aspect. We need each other. Beauty is found everywhere. Our eyes do not have a lack of sense of beauty, but a lack of observation.
- Translated by Elaina Wu
