By Dustin and Susanna Little
In July of this year Families Alive ran parenting seminars in Asia for the second year in a row. We spent time in three different cities for approximately a week at a time. We ran sessions that looked at topics like:
- Influences on our parenting
- Biblical goals as parents
- What love looks like (1 Cor. 13)
- How to love our children well
- A biblical perspective on anger
- Boundaries
- Consequences
It has been apparent in both of our trips so far, that there is an incredible hunger and desire in people to understand God’s ways in the area of family. This was evident to us in one on one conversations, as well as through the variety of people who have attended our sessions; married couples with children and without, grandparents and single people, Christian and non Christian. All in all we were able to train over 300 people during our trip. It was such a joy to see people gain understanding and revelation of God’s ways as we spent time together in lectures, discussion, activities and studying God’s Word.
After we had finished three sessions of teaching on love, boundaries and consequences a young woman approached one of our team members. She shared that throughout her life as a mother she had always set her standards based on comparison of herself to parents around her. Through the sessions she gained understanding of God’s standards for parenting from His word. She was excited to be able to grow in her new understanding as a mother to her children. She recognized that God is with her and wants her to understand and apply His ways.
It is easy for parents in any culture to set standards based on what they see done around them and what is deemed acceptable. God calls us to much more than that, ultimately His Word and His self are our standard. It’s only through seeing Him clearly that we can have a right view of ourselves, our hearts and His ways.
It’s encouraging to see people understand God and His ways, commit in their hearts to do things His way and discover how they can apply His principles within their culture. We are looking forward to going back again next year and continue to feed the church in this area of family.