Growth within Marriage and Family
Building a marriage and family that offers unconditional love, commitment to unity, along with respecting the differences of each family member is at the heart of an effective and healthy family. I have also come to realize how important grace and forgiveness can be within marriage and family and how these traits positively impact each family member to become empowered to move towards godly growth.
While I reflect back to the love in my marriage, I thought I had an understanding of what “covenant love” was, but I neglected to realize its godly significance. Balswick and Balswick (2014) refer to the most important point of covenant love as an “unconditional commitment” which was derived from, and “demonstrated …show more content…
Christian family relationships are based on a commitment where, “each spouse is subject to the other; that is, each makes room for the other to love and be loved, to forgive and be forgiven, to serve and be served, and to know and be known” (Balswick & Balswick, 2014, p.82). Further, the focus is Christ centered and not on oneself, where the realization is we are all sinners and fall short of our Heavenly Father’s grace. Christians in essence believe that marriage and family is a scared bilateral union where God is at the core. Modern day society has a more individualistic approach to marriage and family, where self-gratification is at the forefront. Balswick & Balswick (2014) refer to this type of modern belief system by saying, “A typical example is a person who begins a marriage with the unspoken understanding that as long as his or her needs are being met, all is well, but as soon as those needs are no longer met, the relationship will end” (p.11). Modern society has demonstrated through various avenues, movies, social media, magazines, that romantic love is capable of fulfilling personal wants and needs. Unfortunately, that is an unrealistic approach to marriage commitment and often results in a failed
Building a marriage and family that offers unconditional love, commitment to unity, along with respecting the differences of each family member is at the heart of an effective and healthy family. I have also come to realize how important grace and forgiveness can be within marriage and family and how these traits positively impact each family member to become empowered to move towards godly growth.
While I reflect back to the love in my marriage, I thought I had an understanding of what “covenant love” was, but I neglected to realize its godly significance. Balswick and Balswick (2014) refer to the most important point of covenant love as an “unconditional commitment” which was derived from, and “demonstrated …show more content…
Christian family relationships are based on a commitment where, “each spouse is subject to the other; that is, each makes room for the other to love and be loved, to forgive and be forgiven, to serve and be served, and to know and be known” (Balswick & Balswick, 2014, p.82). Further, the focus is Christ centered and not on oneself, where the realization is we are all sinners and fall short of our Heavenly Father’s grace. Christians in essence believe that marriage and family is a scared bilateral union where God is at the core. Modern day society has a more individualistic approach to marriage and family, where self-gratification is at the forefront. Balswick & Balswick (2014) refer to this type of modern belief system by saying, “A typical example is a person who begins a marriage with the unspoken understanding that as long as his or her needs are being met, all is well, but as soon as those needs are no longer met, the relationship will end” (p.11). Modern society has demonstrated through various avenues, movies, social media, magazines, that romantic love is capable of fulfilling personal wants and needs. Unfortunately, that is an unrealistic approach to marriage commitment and often results in a failed