What Does the Bible Really Teach?

Chapter 14: How to Make Your Family Life Happy

What is needed to be a good husband?

How can a woman succeed as a wife?

What is involved in being a fine parent?

How can children help to make family life happy?

1. What is the key to a happy family life?

JEHOVAH GOD wants your family life to be happy. His Word, the Bible, provides guidelines for each family member, describing the role that God wants each one to play. When family members fulfill their roles in harmony with God’s counsel, the results are very satisfying. Jesus said: “Happy are those hearing the word of God and keeping it!”—Luke 11:28.

2. Family happiness depends on our recognizing what?

2 Family happiness depends mainly on our recognizing that the family originates with Jehovah, the one Jesus called “Our Father.” (Matthew 6:9) Every family on earth exists because of our heavenly Father—and he certainly knows what makes families happy. (Ephesians 3:14, 15) So, what does the Bible teach about the role of each family member?

DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE FAMILY

3. How does the Bible describe the start of the human family, and why do we know that what it says is true?

3 Jehovah created the first humans, Adam and Eve,  and brought them together as husband and wife. He put them in a beautiful earthly paradise home—the garden of Eden—and told them to have children. “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth,” said Jehovah. (Genesis 1:26-28; 2:18, 21-24) This is not just a story or a myth, for Jesus showed that what Genesis says about the start of family life is true. (Matthew 19:4, 5) Although we face many problems and life now is not as God purposed it to be, let us see why happiness within the family is possible.

4. (a) How can each member of the family contribute to its happiness? (b) Why is studying the life of Jesus so important to family happiness?

4 Each member of the family can help to make family life happy by imitating God in showing love. (Ephesians 5:1, 2) How, though, can we imitate God, since we cannot even see him? We can learn how Jehovah acts because he sent his firstborn Son from heaven to the earth. (John 1:14, 18) When on earth, this Son, Jesus Christ, imitated his heavenly Father so well that seeing and listening to Jesus was just like being with Jehovah and hearing Him. (John 14:9) Therefore, by learning about the love that Jesus showed and following his example, each one of us can help to make family life happier.

A MODEL FOR HUSBANDS

5, 6. (a) How does the way Jesus treats the congregation set an example for husbands? (b) What must be done to get forgiveness of sins?

5 The Bible says that husbands should treat their wives in the same way that Jesus treats his disciples. Consider this Bible direction: “Husbands, continue loving your wives, just as the Christ also loved the congregation and delivered up himself for it . . . In this way husbands ought to be loving their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no man ever hated his own  flesh; but he feeds and cherishes it, as the Christ also does the congregation.”—Ephesians 5:23, 25-29.

6 Jesus’ love for his congregation of disciples sets a perfect example for husbands. Jesus “loved them to the end,” sacrificing his life for them, even though they were far from perfect. (John 13:1; 15:13) Similarly, husbands are urged: “Keep on loving your wives and do not be bitterly angry with them.” (Colossians 3:19) What will help a husband to apply such counsel, especially if his wife at times fails to act with discretion? He should remember his own mistakes and what he must do to receive God’s forgiveness. What is that? He must forgive those who sin against him, and that includes his wife. Of course, she should do the same. (Matthew 6:12, 14, 15) Do you see why some have said that a successful marriage is the union of two good forgivers?