SHAPING YOUR FAMILY’S FUTURE


INTRODUCTION


it means to be a family. You think about who you are as a husband and father, or as a wife and mother. You discuss your views of discipline and how to handle conflict, church and community involvement, and the role of grandparents in your family life. Together with your co-parent, you talk about the kind of life you want to have with—and give to—your child.


Family Systems and Faith You don’t have to look far into the Bible to see that the idea of the family system has been around for a long time. Some families function in a healthy way, others seem to self-destruct. Take a look at Jacob and Esau in Genesis 27, or the man who offers his daughter to a bunch of drunks in Judges 19:16–30. That’s good to keep in mind as you dig into your own family issues. You may discover painful or harmful parts of your family history. There is no such thing as a perfect family, and to expect a family with no mistakes is to set yourself up for disappointment.


At the same time, remember that our parents and families have valuable gifts and


resources as well. They made us who we are, with all our strengths, goodness, and potential. It is important to affirm about ourselves what God celebrated with the creation of the first man and woman: “Indeed, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). We should also tap the blessings that our families offer us, embrace the wisdom they pass on to us, and lean on them when we need help.


Questions of faith and spirituality keep coming up throughout Shaping Your Family’s


Future. That’s because we are spiritual beings. It doesn’t mean that we all live by the same set of religious beliefs. Rather, it means that we all long for a sense of meaning in our lives. Questions of faith are at the heart of this longing for meaning in who we are and what we do. The sessions use broadly held Christian beliefs. The ideas presented don’t assume that


everyone in the group comes from a single religious background. They don’t point to one understanding of how to express your faith as a person or as a parent because each person is unique. But the underlying idea throughout the book is that faith and spirituality are part of


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