“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” James 1:17 ESV
This year Mandi and I celebrate our 25th year of marriage! So far, we have shared many blessings, and we have endured many hurts and losses. We have lived on three continents, moved 10 times, baptized our three children, and are now navigating life as parents of teenagers.
Christian couples go through many of the same ups and downs as any other couple. They navigate the same stresses, hardships, and losses in life that any other couple goes through.
Through it all, how do we keep the faith together? How can we as Christians stay tenderhearted toward one another in a hardhearted world?
We are learning about the Way of Grace in Marriage. As we have navigated the ups and downs of married life, we have begun asking, how do we apply the gospel to our marriage?
The Way of Grace is a roadmap for husbands and wives to live a Christ-centered relationship. It also shows us how to disciple others to live out an Ephesians 5 marriage. Instead of reacting out of fear and shame, we can have a culture of love and respect and harmony in our relationships.
There is a way that we can handle our challenges differently from our culture and the bargaining that causes many couples to spiral in their marriage.
As we learn the Way of Grace in Marriage, we want to share that with y’all this year!
Through our Healthy Family Initiative, a ministry of Arkansas Baptist Children & Family Ministries, our team is making it our ambition to equip our local churches to strengthen the marriages and families in our communities.
Here are some highlights of our resources:
- Marriage Enrichment: A weekend for your local church to focus on healthy marriages! Our team will come in and lead this for you! Contact us for more information.
- Marriage Focused Retreat: a personalized getaway to the Baptist Ranch for couples. Each couple will have sessions with their own marriage counselor and lots of time for relaxing and exploring the ranch.
- Marriage Intensive: marriage therapy in Central AR that can create a lot of momentum for change in a relationship.
- Family focused retreats for post adoption families: Adoption is a great calling. One way we want to support it is by offering this fun, relaxing getaway at the Ranch for the whole family.
In addition to these resources, we have a Pre-marriage preparation online group. Pastors can refer their engaged couples to this group which will restart quarterly and run for 8 sessions. Our next group begins February 5th.
On February 11th, we are hosting the Marriage Summit at Williams Baptist University. This is the “State of the Marriage Union.” We would like to invite any of our church leaders and their spouses to attend. We will workshop together, pray for our churches, and strategize on how we can help strengthen and protect marriages in our time.
I’m grateful for each of our churches and the Kingdom work that you’re doing. May our God of hope bless us this year to faithfully encourage our families!
James Barham is the Director of Healthy Family Initiative, a Ministry of ABCFM. To learn more and register for any of the events mentioned above, please visit www.abcfm.org/hfi. You can also reach him at [email protected].