Biblical Counseling Marriage & Family

Parents MUST involve themselves in their children’s lives. Deuteronomy 6:6-7 demonstrates just how time-consuming parenting is. It is not an easy assignment. The difficulty comes when parents fail to follow the simple principles set forth by God. When they neglect their God given duty they forfeit the blessing inherent in parenting. Parenting then becomes a burden God never meant for them to bear.

Being marriage to an unbeliever can be a challenge. For example, believers have different goals in life. God’s Word is important to the believer. Church is important. These can become contentious issues and concerns. They become new sources of stress.

Scarcely a week goes by that I do not talk with a husband and wife whose marriage is failing. They started out happily married but somehow, everything changed. Both find themselves caught up in the chaos of work schedules, household chores, and to-do-lists. Oftentimes these couples describe themselves as “just living together”.

People with marriage problems typically focus on something in the past. Couples need to understand it’s not the past that needs changing. The past doesn’t exist anymore. What needs to change is the husband and/or wife NOW. You can’t change the past you can only change the present.

How do you deal with in-laws that interfere in your marriage? You not only need to adjust yourself to your new husband or wife but also to his or her parents. You want to have a good relationship with them. However, sometimes in laws can have a negative influence on their children’s marriage. It is imperative that YOU do not allow that to happen.

Labels are like signposts. They point people in the direction of a solution. To say anger is a mental health problem is a signpost directing the person to a physician. To call anger a sin is a signpost directing a person to the Bible. It is especially important to give marriage problems a biblical or biblically derived label.

Do you believe if YOU could speak your spouse’s love language and your spouse could speak YOUR love language that will solve all your problems?

Don’t let unbelieving, and skeptical teachers, professors or classmates be the only voices in your son or daughter’s life. You are the best source of information for your kids.

One of the biggest challenges for young Christian adults in college is remaining faithful. In an environment where professors and other students openly criticize the Christian worldview your son or daughter will find themselves having to decide whether to remain silent, defend their faith, or question their faith.

Did you know that there’s evidence God exists without referring to the Bible? Evidence that if parents would teach their kids would make it far less likely their peer group, college professor, or something they see on television, or the internet would drive a wedge between them and their faith.

“Featherweight faith” describes the faith of many believers, especially, teenagers and young adults. It’s the kind of faith that’s easily blown away when it’s challenged by someone in their peer group, a schoolteacher, or college professor.

There is an explanation for the uncomfortable and troubling feelings that people have about their gender. The feelings are REAL. The explanation for the feelings is found in Scripture.

The Bible teaches that our mental processes, thinking, reasoning, decisions, and emotions do not originate in our brain, our body. They originate in the immaterial, heart, or mind. The heart/mind influences the body, the brain.

God allows and orchestrates events, that from our perspective, looks unjustified but from God’s, those same events look much different. What we think is best, is bad. What we think is bad, is best.

It is the number one issue in counseling. It is primarily an issue with those you are closest too; your husband, wife, son and daughter.

I am hearing from concerned parents about problems with their son or daughter. Problems that have created friction and anxiety in the family. They’ve changed in how they view God, Jesus, the Bible, sex and gender and so on. I’ve seen this in adults too.

Every Christian has the capacity to resist sin. And the best time to do it, is before its conception in the heart. By understanding the temptations that appeal to YOU, YOU can short-circuit the sin process.

Desires are, obviously, felt in the body. The Apostle James tells us desires and cravings come from two sources. There are inborn and acquired desires.

Have you wondered how your lingering pain and disease is consistent with Christ's love for you? Why doesn't He heal you.

Why relativism doesn’t make sense, doesn't work in real life and why parents should teach their children how to identify and guard against it.

Doesn’t it make sense to prepare your children for the challenges of a secular culture? You can’t just take them to Sunday School and church and hope for the best. They need more.

The union of a husband and his wife is a metaphor of Christ’s union with the church (Eph. 5). A same sex relationship is not.

The Bible says that all, male and female, believers are slaves of Jesus Christ. But a wife is never told to be a slave to her husband.

When opened to include same sex couples, marriage loses any meaningful definition. The reason is the arguments used by same sex couples must be applied equally to couples that are involved in incest, and pedophilia and so on.

What about gay couples adopting children? Surely adopting means that gay couples can still fulfill the purpose and nature of marriage. Not true.