The life you are leading…the choices you are making will make a difference in the lives of the generations that follow you…children, grandchildren, children you can’t quite imagine yet. Your life, your family life is creating a ripple that will continue extending far beyond you. So, what story are you writing in your family life? DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Consider Proverbs 11:29-31 in its context of family relationships. a. How would you describe the fruit of the righteous and wise person in family bonds? b. How does bringing ruin on one’s family create an empty inheritance like wind? c. Can you notice or describe how these principles have been part of your family history? 2. What characteristics of a marriage relationship do you notice in Proverbs 31:10-12 and 28-31? a. From what you know or suspect about ancient perspectives on marriage or male-female relationships, how does this present a different ideal for marriage? b. When unity is a priority, how does a marriage relationship change? 3. What characteristics of a parent-child relationship can you discern from Proverbs 1:7-9, 10:1, and 13:1? a. How does respecting one’s parents involve a change in relationship dynamic over time? b. How do you resolve or manage the tension between parental responsibility to shepherd their children and the child’s responsibility for their own choices? 4. What different but vital aspects of “directing children onto the right path” are implied in Proverbs 22:6? How can parents both respond to the needs and limitations of their children while also pushing them to excel? 5. Evaluate and consider these quotations about husbands and wives and parenting children: a. “If you cannot think of any way in which your wife excels and truly deserves to be praised, then that is your fault, because God called you to husband her into excellence…God wants to see your wife become more and more capable because of your influence in her life. And he wants to hear you and your kids cheering her on all the way.” Ray Ortlund b. “One of the greatest injustices we do to our young people is to ask them to be conservative. Christianity today is not conservative, but revolutionary. To be conservative today is to miss the whole point, for conservatism means standing in the flow of the status quo…. We must teach the young to be revolutionaries, revolutionaries against the status quo.” Francis Schaeffer c. “We have to prepare the child for the path not the path for the child.” Tim Elmore 6. What kind of story are you writing with your family relationships? Could you identify one or two changes you would like to make or one attitude or action you want to emphasize in your current season of life?