Kay Arthur - Building a Marriage That Really Works

B UILDING A M ARRIAGE T HAT R EALLY W ORKS
P UBLISHED BY W ATER B ROOK P RESS
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Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New American Standard Bible ( NASB Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org).

Italics in Scripture quotations reflect the authors added emphasis.

eISBN: 978-0-307-55243-3

Copyright 2004 by Precept Ministries International

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York.

W ATER B ROOK and its deer colophon are registered trademarks of Random House Inc.

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This small-group study is for people who are interested in learning for themselves more about what the Bible says on various subjects, but who have only limited time to meet together. Its ideal, for example, for a lunch group at work, an early morning mens group, a young mothers group meeting in a home, a Sunday-school class, or even family devotions. (Its also ideal for small groups that typically have longer meeting timessuch as evening groups or Saturday morning groupsbut want to devote only a portion of their time together to actual study, while reserving the rest for prayer, fellowship, or other activities.)

This book is designed so that all the groups participants will complete each lessons study activities at the same time. Discussing your insights drawn from what God says about the subject reveals exciting, life-impacting truths.

Although its a group study, youll need a facilitator to lead the study and keep the discussion moving. (This persons function is not that of a lecturer or teacher. However, when this book is used in a Sunday-school class or similar setting, the teacher should feel free to lead more directly and to bring in other insights in addition to those provided in each weeks lesson.)

If you are your groups facilitator, the leader, here are some helpful points for making your job easier:

• Go through the lesson and mark the text before you lead the group. This will give you increased familiarity with the material and will enable you to facilitate the group with greater ease. It may be easier for you to lead the group through the instructions for marking if you, as a leader, choose a specific color for each symbol you mark.
• As you lead the group, start at the beginning of the text and simply read it aloud in the order it appears in the lesson, including the insight boxes, which appear throughout. Work through the lesson together, observing and discussing what you learn. As you read the Scripture verses, have the group say aloud the word they are marking in the text.
• The discussion questions are there simply to help you cover the material. As the class moves into the discussion, many times you will find that they will cover the questions on their own. Remember, the discussion questions are there to guide the group through the topic, not to squelch discussion.
• Remember how important it is for people to verbalize their answers and discoveries. This greatly strengthens their personal understanding of each weeks lesson. Try to ensure that everyone has plenty of opportunity to contribute to each weeks discussions.
• Keep the discussion moving. This may mean spending more time on some parts of the study than on others. If necessary, you should feel free to spread out a lesson over more than one session. However, remember that you dont want to slow the pace too much. Its much better to leave everyone wanting more than to have people dropping out because of declining interest.
• If the validity or accuracy of some of the answers seems questionable, you can gently and cheerfully remind the group to stay focused on the truth of the Scriptures. Your object is to learn what the Bible says, not to engage in human philosophy. Simply stick with the Scriptures and give God the opportunity to speak. His Word is truth (John 17:17)!

A s children, little girls often used to play dress up, with a blanket draped over their heads to serve as a brides veil as they dreamed about their future wedding day. Together, little girls and boys played house, with Daddy going to work and Mommy taking care of the kids and cooking the meals. Daddy would come home and kiss Mommy, then they would sit down to dinner and talk about the events of the day.

Such innocent days soon gave way to grownup responsibilities, where the experience of real-life marriage seems much more difficult than we dreamed as children. And in these days where the definitions of family and home have been stretched and challenged, the husband-wife relationship presents more challenges than ever before. Divorce has either directly or indirectly affected virtually all of us. Blended families and multiple-income households seem to be the standard of our day.

So how can we follow Gods design for marriage in our modern-day world? In the weeks ahead we will take a look at the institution of marriage and the roles of the husband and the wife, as well as examine key principles regarding communication, love, and finances. Through this study you will discover how to establish and maintain the kind of marriage God intended you to haveone that will last until death us do part.

After God created the heavens and the earth and everything on the earth, He formed the most magnificent of all His creaturesman and woman. More detail is given regarding the sixth day of creation than any of the others, indicating the significance of these distinctive creations. God created man and woman for a unique relationship with Him and with each other.

We are going to begin our study this week by looking at Gods design for marriage. Can it truly be a permanent, meaningful, joyful relationship?

Genesis is the book of beginnings. Lets take a look at the Creation account of man and woman and the beginning of this institution we call marriage.

Leader: Read aloud Genesis 1:26-28.

• Have the group underline every reference to man , including any pronouns.

• What did you learn from marking man in each verse?
• What did you learn from these verses about male and female?
• What role and responsibilities did God give to both male and female in verse 28?
• Could Gods instructions be carried out by two men or two women? What does this tell you about the institution of marriage?
• Discuss why it is significant that God gave the same responsibilities to both the male and the female.

G ENESIS 1:26-28

Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.