Oakwood Church

Children Raised Without Fathers Experience:
• 4x risk of poverty
• 7x risk of teen pregnancy
• 3x risk of gun crime

Children Raised Without Fathers Experience:
• 63% of teen suicides
• 90% of runaways
• 71% of dropouts
• 85%ofbehavioraldisorders
• 75% of drug addicts

1. Your spouse is God’s Provision to bless you

“Male and female he created them. And God blessed them.”
Genesis 1:27

2. Together you can reflect the Completion of God’s image

“In the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
Genesis 1:27

• Your strengths and weaknesses were designed by God to make you better together.

“The man gave names to… every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.”
Genesis 2:20

• Your strengths and weaknesses were designed by God to make you better together.

“The Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a helper fit for him.’” Genesis 2:18

• Your strengths and weaknesses were designed by God to make you better together.

“This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman.”
Genesis 2:23

“What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?”
~ Gary Thomas, Sacred Marriage

3. Your lifelong Union is built on commitment, trust, and mutual service

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
Genesis 2:24

Assignment:
Express to your spouse in writing or video:
1. You are an amazing blessing from God to me
2. You complete me in these wonderful ways
3. I am committed to loving, respecting, and serving you - no matter what!