Northwest News!

The following comes from a very progressive viewpoint but even people who are not Christians have to admit to the value of marriage.

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TONIGHT many of us will be populating hotels and public bars, decked out in inappropriate tartan, raising glasses to celebrate the power of love and the joys of (the opposite) sex.

It’s what our right arms are for, after all. But in the years ahead the prospects for such festivities look increasingly bleak. Not because of any anti-Burns backlash, but because of the increasing abandonment of another tradition which demands kilts, drams and speeches. Marriage is falling out of fashion.

Figures from the National Statistics Office published last week show that, on current trends, the unwed will outnumber the married within a year. Marriage will join kirk attendance, voting Tory or reading the Sunday Post as an activity which was once the norm, indeed which bound together a majority of Scots, but which is now a minority pursuit.

The flight from the altar is, of course, bad news for kilt hire firms and hoteliers. But, for others it is no great cause for lament. Why should adults be corralled into an institution invented by a church in which a majority no longer believe? Why should the personal have to become public? Why should the million different shapes that love can take be forced into the Victorian corset of mouldy vows and mildewed sentiments? Since most couples live together before they marry, and therefore few these days believe that bridal white reflects virginal purity, why go through a charade just to please parents, when the cash could pay for a new kitchen instead?

Given the strength, and gathering force, of this trend, who would dare stand against it? Who would want to be a Holy Willie, twitching and frothing at what young people get up to these days, seeking to apply the morality of a judgmental and prejudiced past in these, more liberal and tolerant, times?

But if no one points out the consequences of the marginalisation of marriage, then some of the most vulnerable in our society will be voiceless. For the drift away from marital commitment is part of a broader flight from responsibility which is weakening our society and hitting the poorest, hardest.

Read the rest of the article.

 

I read the following in Paul Chappell’s article in the Baptist Voice:

Someone once said, “It is more rewarding to resolve a conflict than to dissolve a relationship.”  The pursuit of resolution in marital conflict says to your spouse, “I love you so much that I will stay here until this problem is taken care of!”  Rather than the silent treatment or some other manipulative behaviour, mature marriages work things out.  A mature couple will talk, pray, and refuse to let something go unresolved.

Conflict in marriage is inevitable.  You will never eradicate it completely from your home, but you can deal with it biblically and with spiritual maturity.  Here are ten “wrong ways” to handle marital conflict:

TEN WRONG WAYS TO HANDLE CONFLICT

1. Denying that a problem even exists
2. The silent treatment (relational withdrawal)
3. Emotional outbursts (adult temper trantrums)
4. Walking away and refusing to work it out
5. Verbal sparring with hurtful words (trying to win an argument rather than resolve the problem)
6. Bringing up past failures (viewing today’s conflict through yesterday’s pain)
7. Shifting the blame and not admitting my own failure
8. Ignoring the problem and pretending it will go away
9. Failing to seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance through prayer
10. Refusing to say, “I was wrong; I’m sorry; will you forgive me?”

Yesterday in the message I encouraged all of us have family devotions.  Pastor Austin Gardner sent out the following article that will give you some practical ideas for how you can have family devotions with your family.

One of the most important things that parents can do for the family and children is to have a family altar. I didn’t understand how to do this for a long time. It seemed like it was way too hard so I just didn’t do anything about it. I thought maybe I would give you a couple of ideas about how to have your family altar or devotional time.

I think it will do several things to have this family altar. It will show your children the importance you place on Bible reading. It will teach them to read their Bibles and pray. It will give you a chance to answer their questions about the Bible, church and life. It will give you a chance to express your love to them.

1.   Decide on a time to have your devotions. Betty and I found that it was best to have ours at breakfast in Peru but at other times we have used the evenings. Our problem was often my evening schedule so it was worth it to get up in the morning and take the time to read and pray together.

2.   Plan now for it to be short and fun not long and another church service.

3.   We read a chapter of the Bible together. Start in the New Testament. Each day all the kids got out their Bibles including those that couldn’t read. Then each of us would read two verses. Dad read two verses. Mom read two verses. Then the ones that could read would read one or two verses depending upon ability.

4.   Mom would help those that couldn’t read a verse by saying the words and letting the children repeat them such as, For God, For God, so loved, so loved —well you get the idea.

5.   After reading a chapter or less depending upon age and length of chapter I would comment on one or two verses for a minute or two. This is a good time to teach the children to sit still and be quiet and prepare them for church.

6.   After the reading then I would ask who had questions, first about the text and then about anything. We would discuss them. Obviously, we limited the questions because the smaller children could ask questions all day.

7.   Then I would ask them about their prayer requests. We then prayed. I usually let one of them lead in prayer first and then I would close in prayer. As I prayed I would mention their requests, their needs, and I tried to pray for them and thank God for them-that expresses love to them. We would pray for a missionary of the day. Each day a different child got to get the prayer card out and tell us who we were praying for. We would discuss a little about the missionary.

8.   Our total time in family devotions was usually less than 15 minutes. Many times around 10 minutes. I would rather read and pray a little each day than make it such a burden that we wouldn’t have family devotions.

9.   We usually only had devotions about four days a week.

I will give you more later but at least with this you get the idea. Go have family devotions. Answer their questions. Teach them the Word of God.