Marriage and Family

On our second week back after Christmas break, we heard from a Branson local. Ted Cunningham is the pastor of Woodland Hills Family Church in Branson. This is also the church that I attend, so it was neat to hear from someone that I have been constantly gaining respect for throughout my time here in Branson. His focus for the week was marriage, relationships, and family. Ted is nationally known and speaks at marriage seminars all over the country, so he had a lot to say on this topic. Some of the things he spoke on more specifically were marriage and family trends our culture has accepted that are not centered on Biblical principles. Along with those, he spoke on how the church can combat them. Another big thing that he talked about was communication and its importance. I wont get too deep into everything he talked about, mainly because there was so much. However, I will share a few specific pieces of advice and wisdom he shared that really stuck out to me, the first of which is, “If you make a decision, you will find evidence to back it up.” For example, if you decide that you are married to a lazy husband, you will only see him taking naps. Likewise, if you decide that you have a nagging wife, you will only hear her complain. Therefore, we need to be careful of the decisions that we make, because they have power.

            Another piece of advice that stuck out to me is you cannot blame others for your mood or behavior. The words “you are making me mad” are a complete lack of responsibility. We are each 100% responsible for the state of our hearts. In a marriage, it is not the husband’s job to make the wife happy and it is not the wife’s job the make the husband happy. That is codependency and the truth is, your spouse can never fulfill you. If you expect them to, your marriage will suffer.

            The third and last piece of advice that I will share is you cannot close your heart to some people and open if to others. If you have unresolved anger with someone, it effects all your other relationships because your heart cannot go from closed to open depending on who you are with. A quote that Ted mentioned with this is, “you don’t bury anger dead, you bury it alive.” What I got from that quote was until you resolve your anger toward someone and forgive them, you will never be from its hold, which will effect your interactions with everyone you meet.

            Even though I am not married, it was really interesting to hear what Ted had to say on that subject. I believe that hearing this before I get married and therefore having a head start in a sense will benefit me greatly once I am.