How Can We Improve Relationships @ Home?

Where do you find it most difficult to live out the Christian life?

On the job? On the golf course? Around non believers? During traffic jams?

How about at home? What makes it difficult to live like Christ at home?

When Amy and I first got married, we had never had a major argument. I’ll never forget our first major argument that took place one month after we said, “I do.” We both got mad over some pretty small things, but our anger towards one another escalated! We had never had any heated disagreements before so we didn’t know exactly how to handle it.

Needless to say, we didn’t handle it the Christ-like way, and our tempers flared for an hour or so, and we said things we didn’t need to say.

Eventually, we both came to our senses and acknowledged to each other that we both had a part in that argument. We were so thankful to be back in each others good grace once more!

You do know the three rings of marriage? 1 - Engagement Ring, 2 - Wedding Ring, & 3 - Suffering

I’m thankful to be married to a loving, forgiving, Christ-centered woman. How do couples make it without Christ at the center? It’s difficult to have a solid Christian home with Jesus and I can only image trying to do life without Christ at the center.

Rest assured, there will be difficult times in living the Christian life at home. You have an enemy who is doing all he can to steal, kill, and destroy your home and testimony. On top of that, you are still not Mr. and Mrs. Perfect.

You may feel that there is no hope for your family, but there is always hope, because we worship and serve the God of all hope.

Will you allow Jesus to be at the center of your home life? Will you allow Jesus to be first place in your family?

Joshua 24:15 – “If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Let’s discover the Apostle Peter’s timeless principles when it comes to improving all relationships at home.

1 – Wives, Focus on Your Christ-like Behavior

3:1-2 - “In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands, so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior.”

My wife is very attractive to me. I think she is stunning. She won Miss Dublin in her early 20’s and is simply a beautiful lady.

Do you know what attracted me to Amy more than anything? It was her walk with Jesus. It’s how she loved to serve the Lord. It’s how she spends time seeking to know Christ better and better and how she lives to make Him known.

3:2 – “…be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word…”

Being a Christian means that we first and foremost have submitted to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives. We are not over him, calling the shots, but He is first in our lives, leading the way. We are submitted to Him, His will, and His way.

A rebellious wife that is not submitted to Christ and to her husband is a recipe for disaster in the home. A wife that is surrendered to Christ and to her husband is a recipe for harmony and hope in the family.

Even if the husband is not a believer in Christ, a godly wife’s attitude may be the key to opening his heart to the Lord.

Nagging is certainly not the best way to win an unsaved husband to the Lord. Nagging is also not the best way to improve relationships at home.

One of our friends from a previous church wanted her husband to be saved and come to know Jesus as his Lord and Savior. For forty years she prayed and did all she could to get him to turn to the Lord, but he wouldn’t.

He had all the typical excuses: Church is full of hypocrites, I’m just as good as those people in the church, God hasn’t done anything special for me, etc.

Betty was wise in her witness toward her husband. Over all these years she kept loving, serving, encouraging him, without beating him over the head with a Bible.

I’ll never forget the night that Roddy came to faith in Jesus Christ. Our church rejoiced like we had never rejoiced before because we knew only the Lord God Almighty could reach down and change his unbelieving heart. We were so happy that Betty got to see her number one prayer request answered after all these years!