Week #9 – Communication

Definition: a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior

Synonym: Dispatch, Message 

Ephesians 4:25, 29 – Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor. For we are all members of one body. V.29 – Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen

Reflection Questions:

• Do I always tell my husband the truth?
• Do I avoid sarcasm, hurtful remarks, and public criticism of my husband?
• Do I speak words of encouragement and admiration to my husband?
• Do I discipline myself not to interrupt or contradict when my husband is talking?

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Week #8 – Kindness

Definition: a quality or state of being kind.

Synonym: Caring, Gentle, Courtesy, Mercy, Nice, Benevolence

Ephesians 4:31, 32 – Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

1 Corinthians 13:4 – Love is patient and kind.

Reflection/Discussion Questions:

• Do I treat my husband as graciously as I would a guest?
• Do I engage in distinct acts of gentleness when dealing with my husband?
• Am I kind to my husband, even during intense disagreements?

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Week #7 – Modesty / Purity

Definition: the quality or state of being pure; propriety in dress, speech, and conduct

Synonym: Chasteness, Chastity, Innocence, Purified, Undiluted, Unmixed

Ephesians 5: 3,4 – But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.

Reflection / Discussion Questions:

• Do I keep my mind free from books, magazines, movies, TV series, online videos, social media post, and entertainment that could stimulate fantasizing or thoughts that are not morally pure?
• Do I listen to music with lyrics that are sexually explicit or relational in nature that can cause my mind to desire what is not within the context of my marriage?
• Do I watch or listen to comedy that has obscenities, coarse joking or vulgar content?
• Do I dress discreetly, drawing attention to my inner life of Christ, rather than to my physical body parts?

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Week #6 – Patience and Sensitivity

Definition:

• bearing pains or trials calmly or without complaint
• manifesting forbearance under provocation or strain
• delicately aware of the attitudes and feelings of others

Synonym: Forbearing, Tolerant, Uncomplaining, Delicate, Perceptive, Sharp

1Corinthians 13:4 – Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant.

Titus 2:5 – to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

 

Reflection /Discussion Questions:

• Do I respond graciously to interruptions, irritations and annoyances?
• Am I willing to overlook obvious imperfections in my husband?
• Am I sensitive to my husband’s needs, request or wants?
• Am I perceptive to the best times to provide my husband negative news of constructive criticism?

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Week #5 – Forgiveness

Definition: to cease to feel resentment against (an offender); to grant relief from payment of

Synonym: Pardon, Absolution, Amnesty,

Colossians 3:13 – Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Reflection /Discussion Questions:

• Do I seek to resolve each conflict or misunderstanding as soon as possible?
• Am I quick to forgive my husband for his failures, offenses, or insensitivities?
• Do I refuse to bring up the past or to hold past failures against my husband?

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Week #3 and #4 –  Yielding Rights and Submission

• Yield; bending or stretching easily; not rigid or stiff.
• Right; the power or privilege to which one is justly entitled
• Submission; an act of deferring to the authority or control of another

Synonym: give in, bow, succumb prerogative, compliance, conformity

Philippians 2: 5-8 – Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Ephesians 5:22-24 – Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

Reflection/Discussion Questions:

• Do I trust God alone to meet all of my physical, emotional, and spiritual needs?
• Do I willingly yield to my husband’s authority in all things?
• Do I communicate an attitude of submission, as well as submissive actions?
• Do I (did I) teach our children, by my example and words, to honor and obey their father?
• Do I honor and obey God?

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Week #2 : Serve – to furnish or supply with something needed or desired. To answer the needs of; to be of use.

Synonym: Work, Slave (for), Minister (to), Tend (to)

Galatians 5:13 – You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

1Peter 4:9-10 – Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.

Reflection / Discussion Questions:

• Do I use my gifts to serve whom, where or when God has intended for me to serve?
• Do I use my gifts to serve my husband?
• Am I content to serve my husband, even when he doesn’t seem to notice or appreciate my efforts?
• How will I serve my husband this week, that is different than how I have served him in the past?

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Week #1 : Commitment – an agreement or pledge to do something in the future; the state or an instance of being obligated.

Synonym: Promise, Pledge, Vow, Obligation, Assurance   

Genesis 31:44 – So come, let’s make a covenant, you and I, and it will be a witness to our commitment.”

Matthew 19:5,6 – and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one.

Reflection/Discussion Questions:

• Am I committed to God?  Have I made a pledge, an agreement with God concerning my marriage? (think of your wedding day/date)
• Is my commitment to the standards, views and conducts of God reliant upon what God can/will do for me?
• How does my commitment to God overlap; explain and solidify my commitment to my husband?
• Does my husband know with certainty that I am committed to our marriage? if so, how?

Much grace,