Fixer Upper: God's Blueprint for Family Life*

Marriage and family life are gifts from God, but they also require effort, wisdom, and biblical guidance to thrive. In this episode, Pastor Chris unpacks Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3, offering practical advice on biblical marriage roles, parenting, and relationships. He shares personal stories, humor, and biblical wisdom to encourage husbands to love sacrificially, wives to support their husbands, and children to grow in obedience and faith. Whether you're married, single, or raising kids, this message offers timeless principles to strengthen your home and relationships.

Key Themes & Scripture References:

• God’s Design for Marriage – Ephesians 5:21-33 explains mutual love and respect between husbands and wives.
• Husbands, Love Your Wives – Colossians 3:19 teaches that true leadership is servant-hearted love.
• Children, Obey Your Parents – Colossians 3:20 emphasizes honor and obedience as pleasing to God.
• Parents, Raise Kids with Wisdom – Proverbs 22:6, Proverbs 29:15 highlight godly discipline and encouragement.

Personal Reflections & Stories:

• Helping a Couple at Costco – A simple act of kindness reminded Pastor Chris of how serving others can strengthen marriages.
• Lessons from Parenting – A humorous look at expectations vs. reality in raising kids and the importance of discipline with love.
• Marriage Submission Explained – A story from Andy Stanley’s teaching on mutual love and respect in a Christ-centered marriage.

Notable Quotes:

• “Marriage works best when both spouses seek to serve one another in love.”
• “Godly leadership isn’t about control—it’s about responsibility.”
• “Healthy marriages create strong families, and strong families transform communities.”

Application & Takeaways:

• Husbands, step up as spiritual leaders – Lead with love, wisdom, and selflessness.
• Wives, support and respect your husbands – Encouragement fosters stronger unity.
• Parents, train children in godliness – Teach them biblical values and self-control.
• Singles, use your time wisely – God calls everyone to live with purpose and integrity.
• Seek biblical counsel early – Don’t wait until marriage is broken—invest in growth today.

Scripture References Mentioned:

• Ephesians 5:21-33 – Husbands and wives reflecting Christ’s love for the church.
• Colossians 3:18-21 – Roles in Christian families—submission, love, and parenting.
• Proverbs 22:6 – Train up a child in the way they should go.
• Philippians 2:5-8 – Christ’s humility as an example for marriage and leadership.

Keywords & Tags:

marriage, family, parenting, relationships, love, faith, biblical wisdom, Ephesians 5, Colossians 3, discipleship

This episode highlights God’s blueprint for healthy marriages and families, encouraging us to love, lead, and serve one another with Christ at the center.

18m0721de Help for the Christian Family. 

The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:16

We're checked into database. As marriage experts, we specialize in home modifications, which will help you improve the fun play of your marriage.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Because home is where the heart is, we update, construct, and remodel your nightmare and flip it into the marriage of your dreams.

SPEAKER_04 0:34

We are the marriage victory.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

So, guys, tell me exactly what's been going on. I feel like he sets down and never wants to talk about how he's feeling.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. We're gonna tear down that wall, really open it up in the air.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Perfect. That's what I want.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

He doesn't understand the pressures I have at work. It's a lot to bear. I have to do it on my own.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

We definitely have a load bearing issue, that's for sure. But don't worry. Oh where's that stove? Exactly. Where's the stuff I'm gonna do?

SPEAKER_02 1:07

Here we go. Talking about what let my stove go. Nobody wants to go.

SPEAKER_03 1:14

Hey!

SPEAKER_04 1:17

Ha! Looks like you got a chip lap under here.

SPEAKER_03 1:21

It's kind of like this new light fixture I just installed. It's actually like this light bulb. Are you saying I need a new light bulb?

SPEAKER_04 1:30

What? No, no, no, no, no. You're marriage. Just need a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 1:38

Are you needing electricity?

SPEAKER_01 1:47

What in the world is that? Those are the new kids in our toilet. You see, marriage is about opening up and sharing everything together. We like to call it sharing our marriage valve. A couple that goes together grows together. So, guys, we don't have a lot of money left in the budget.

SPEAKER_04 2:07

It starts a little bit like our marriage. Am I right? No.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

But with the leftover money, you have one of three options to choose. Number one, we have a beautiful walk-in closet for the master bedroom. Here we have a man cave with theater seating.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

That one sounds good to me.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Just like you to think about yourself. And number three, a brand new in-ground swimming pool. Yeah. That sounds like a nice compromise.

SPEAKER_03 2:40

Why is a chest shirt list? Oh, the pool company too. Just couple chest wax. Walking closet sounds great.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Are you guys ready to see the latest addition to your lovely home?

SPEAKER_02 2:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

They are sure to bring this marriage back to good.

SPEAKER_04 2:58

It's a dog. See, nothing brings a couple closer together than having a common purpose of like being able to take care of the dog. It's more responsible when it's come to take care of the kids. Oh hey, don't worry. We're trying to come to the office until we get to it so when the animals come to move in, everything will be taken care of.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Oh come on, like you've never done any work to do.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Oh no, we've got a two-free kids.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Good luck, money.

Chris T 3:46

Mary! We're gonna talk about marriage. And I've been married for a long time. And pretty happy about the whole thing. Actually, I was delighted to hear that my wife would be working in children's church, so I can say whatever I want without looking at her, shaking her head, no, going, no, that didn't happen in our marriage, or that doesn't work. North Point had this conference for like family and marriage. And so the guy that runs the ministry said that they feel that when people come to the church and they say they're having troubles with their marriage, that they're gonna get divorced, that they're like years into the conflict, and they've come into the church saying, Hey, our marriage is broken because they want to get rubber stamped, want to get an approval for a divorce, they've already given up. You should come when the troubles are starting. And we can pray. Can I always fix things? We often send you off to a Christian counselor. One of the most difficult things about marriage and marriage conflict when you're a friend or a pastor or a counselor or whatever, is you get two different husband and wife that share their story, and sometimes you hear this side of the story and you hear this side of the story, and you're like, whoa, these people like live in different houses or something. And then, you know, so sometimes my wife would talk to the wife and I would talk to the husband. We come together and try to figure out what was really going on. And sometimes it's difficult. Sometimes there's been great results, and you know, there's been healing and help, and marriages continue on. Other times the conflict has been so great that we've actually taken the tables at the ministry center, made them as thick as we could to keep the husband and wife apart from each other while they're talking or yelling. But anyway, marriage is tough. But we're going to talk about marriage, and if you look in your bulletin, I gave you a bunch of resources. And the cool thing about the resources is they're all in the New Believers New Testament. So there's a whole section on marriage here and on children, and so it's the Bible and it's all sorts of resources. So summer long, we're trying to get you to take these and give them out to people, to use them as a tool, to disciple people, to lead people to Christ, because when people get God's word in their heart and then apply it to their lives, their lives change. Their lives become better, the neighborhood becomes better, the workplace becomes better, the school becomes better, society becomes better, the country becomes better, all because you're sharing Christ and the resources in the New Believers New Testament. So if you were to open it up to the middle section here, it talks about husbands and wives have distinct roles in marriage, and that's what we're going to talk about today. And so it says read Ephesians 5.21 to 33. So let's actually jump back to 5.15. So Paul writes like these parallel epistles. So he writes to the Colossians and he writes to the Ephesians, and he basically says a lot of the same things to both groups. And very rarely do we see stuff like that in the Bible that we've got a parallel like that. And it's awesome because, you know, twice said means it must really be important. Hold Ephesians 5.15. So be careful how you live. Don't live like fools, but live but like those who are wise. And that is so important with marriage and family and relationships. And you're like saying, okay, well, I don't, I'm not married, or I don't have a family, or I already raised my family, or whatever, but you're supposed to be supportive of marriage and supportive of children, and you're supposed to do what you can to help other people's marriages thrive and survive. So if you're a manager or an employer or something like that, you want to make sure that you're not keeping your worker away from home where it causes conflict and everything like that. When I worked, when I first started working at this one company, I worked in the shipping department and basically you stayed there till the job was done. And so at first it was hard, I was difficult for my wife to understand that I can't come home until the job is done. So she'd be waiting for me sometimes. Sometimes she'd have dinner made, and I'd be like, I can't come home yet. I got I got I got and so once she understood that I wasn't in control of the time I got to come home, then it was all good. So, but you want to be not fools, but live wise. So don't live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Do that with your family, with your grandkids, with your marriage, with your friends, with being single. So being single means that you never get in the way of a husband and wife. You don't come and break up a marriage or flirt with someone's spouse or or whatever. Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don't be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and further submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. That's gonna be the first word in our outline about submit, about wives submitting to their husbands, which gets a lot of people upset. And we're gonna talk about that and what how it's supposed to work and why God put it in there. But it's not just a wife submitting to a husband, it's here it says to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. So we are to submit to one another. For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife, as Christ is the head of the church, he is the savior of his body, the church. Jesus is. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands and everything. For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God's word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any other blemish, and said, She will be holy and without fault. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. No one hates his own body, but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. And we are members of his body, as the scriptures say, a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. So that's the Ephesian side of it. We're actually looking at the Colossians side, which is a little shorter, but the text is basically the same. And that is that wives are to submit, husbands are to love, children are to obey. And then in Colossians we also see that fathers, or actually you could translate the word parents, are not to embitter or discourage or make it so that their children are just overwhelmed and can't obey or don't want to obey anymore because they're so harsh and difficult. So we're gonna try to cover those things. So God's plan for the husband is to be the leader of his household, to be the Christian head of his home. In some homes, the wife is more spiritual, more knowledgeable, sometimes more mature than the husband. But when it's all said and done, God's gonna hold the husband accountable for being the spiritual leader of his family. So maybe the wife knows more, has memorized more verses, all these things, and you know, she's got more knowledge, but the husband shouldn't say, Well, I can't compete with that, so I just give up. Instead, he should do what he can to get his family to church, family devotions, devotions on his own, doing what he to be the gatekeeper of his house for the media that comes in and the things that they watch and they see and what's going on on the internet and all those things. God wants the husband to be the spiritual leader of the family. Just like Jesus is submissive to God the Father, and he was submissive to come down here on earth and live among us and all those things. I think we see that in Philippians 2. That husbands and wives are one and they're supposed to submit to each other, but God has put the husband in the driver's seat. I don't think I've ever seen this in real life, but because there's nothing to watch on TV, my son and I have been watching old episodes of chips on Amazon Prime. So I'm more looking at the cars in the background because it's interesting. But they had an episode that we watched the other day, and actually, when they was that when they first came out, I was a little kid, which is kind of funny. But they were doing driver's training and they had two steering wheels in the car. So they still went off the road and crashed. I don't know how that happens when you have two steering wheels, but two steering wheels in the car, and I'm telling you, if you've got two steering wheels in your marriage, it's probably not gonna work. So what you want to do is, you know, trust and love, and I'm gonna share some story examples of how that could really work out. So, alright, so then we come to the parallel passage, which is shorter, which is what we're gonna look at today, and that is help for the Christian family from Colossians 3, 18 to 21. Wives submit to your husbands as is fitting for those who belong to the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly. Children, always obey your parents, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not aggravate your children, or they will become discouraged. So we want the kids in children's church today to memorize the verse. Children's always, children, always obey your parents. Always, what did we learn in church? I should always obey my parents because this pleases the Lord. That should be the bumper sticker for every kid's bike today, right? Dan likes to have bumper stickers. So I need to obey my parents in the Lord. Alright, so let's look at what happens when wives submit. Wives submitting to their husband. Is that a good idea or not? I mean, there are some husbands that are abusive and selfish, selfish, and I'm telling you, if you know that that person is that way, why did you ever marry them? You shouldn't have married them if you thought that they were gonna be that way. I read some research lately that said most people know when a marriage is gonna fail while they're engaged when they're engaged or while they're working it through, and often they choose to not get married because they know it's just not gonna work out. They have an inner feeling it's not gonna work out, so they don't get married. But sometimes we get married and we think we married the perfect person and we find out that they're not so perfect, or they or we're not perfect, and they've responded to our imperfectness, and now you know things change, people change, kids come, kind of like in the video, and sometimes life can be a mess. And we should do what we can to support people in their marriage, to encourage them and to help make peace. So a couple days ago, my wife and I were going, we went to Costco and we were driving through the lot. I was in my truck, I saw this couple, and they were trying to get this freezer into this little car. So they're trying to put the freezer in the back of a little Honda, and it's not working out. And I'm driving past saying that's not working out. And anyway, I said, you know, we're busy, got places to go. They probably live far away, probably can't help them, maybe should, don't know. My wife's like, well, maybe we should help. I said, Well, okay, we'll ask them and see how far away they live. So we walked up to them and they said, That does I said something like, That doesn't look like it's working. And they're like, No. And I said, Do you live far from here? And they're like, Yeah, about 10 minutes. I said, Well, I put it, I'll put it in the back of my truck and take it to your house if you want. Oh, that would be great. I said, Are you two married? Yeah. I said, I'm not sure whose idea this was, but we're here to save your marriage. And they laughed, and so I put it in the back of the truck, and I said to him, Hey, this dent right here, I didn't do it. He's like, No, I did it, trying to put it in the back of my car. So anyway, took it to his house and everything, and then went back to Costco and went on with our day. And I mean, just that whole thing of trying to help people. Now, I've wanted to help people for many years. I first started out as a youth and family pastor at a church down in Iowa, and we'd have parenting classes all the time. And you know who would come to the parenting classes? The parents who had it all together, the people who could teach the parenting classes, the people that didn't have it all together, that needed the parenting classes, they never came. So it was all this struggle, you know. It's like, man, you need to come to the parenting class. And then you'd get all the other people that are experienced in parenting and sometimes, you know, criticize the method. Or I remember there was one parenting book and they had these four quadrants, and they said, Your child is either this, this, this, or this. I'm like, no, you've never met my kid. He's not either any of those. He he's made his own category. So that is true for us too. So in this thing, in the bulletin that I've given you, I've given you a great list on the bottom of the back page about what you can find on right now media. So their app broke. So if you if you have, but if you search marriage and right now media, you get 504 results. That's 504 video resources. If you search parenting, you get 213 results. If you search grandparenting, you get 12 results. Why? Because usually grandparents have it all figured out, you know, because they raised their kids and they're all perfect, now they're having kids. What do they need a video for? But they have 12 results. Adoption, 56 results. In case you don't have kids, you want kids, maybe you had kids, kids are all grown up, you want more kids? Adoption is a great answer. And then some other resources like marriedpeople.org or familylife.com. That's Dennis Rainey's stuff. He's got marriage and family resources. Focus on the family. This FDM.world slash parenting class. Yeah, I think that's a real website. Anyway, free marriage seminar. I've talked to the guy out in California. He said we could use this stuff for free. It's good stuff. Hope for the Heart by June Hunt. Any of June Hunt's counseling resources are pretty good. Sometimes you have a particular need, you can go on like Google Play or Kindle or whatever, and you can download her counseling manuals for a particular issue. But hopeforheart.org or June Hunt. Homeward.com is Jim Burns out in California, and he's currently supposed to release a book on adult parenting, which I was excited to buy. I was already to push the button, and it says, oh wait, you can pre-order it because it's not ready till March. Allprodad.com, something Tony Dungey really pushes and it's good. Josh.org is Josh McDowell stuff. And then the youth ministry professor from Crown College, if you go to Kencaster.com slash category forward slash parenting, he has got resources and shares about parenting. And I like most of what he writes. So that is awesome. So okay, also in this flyer bulletin, some stuff about marriage here. Marriage is important to God. So in the bullets here, God created marriage. Husband and wives have distinct roles in marriage. A marriage works when a couple follows God's specific design for the husband and wife. Boundaries of marriage are to be honored and enjoyed. Sexual intimacy is meant to be enjoyed only within the bounds of the marriage relationship, keeping your marriage strong. God promises punishment to those who commit adultery or lead immoral lives. Divorce is not part of God's plan. Jesus teaches that marriage is meant to be a lifelong commitment. A Christian should not leave a non-Christian spouse. An unbelieving husband or wife should not be abandoned but loved. Marriage is not for everyone, although God blesses many with marriage. Some are given a calling or ability to remain single. Marriage is for companionship, while God has given some the ability to remain happily single. He has given others the gift of a companion for life. There is intimacy in marriage that can be found nowhere else. God wants you to have a fulfilling, enjoyable sex life within the parameters of marriage. And a strong marriage is an ideal environment for raising godly children. Those children who see their parents united by their love for God and for one another have an advantage over those who do not. So, anyway, so there's more resources here. You can look at that, read that, and you can know that it's all here in this$3 book that we're giving away. Or that you can buy at Biblesatcost.com. So we actually buy them by the case from BiblesAtCost.com. So anyway. Mawage. I always like that in the Princess Pride. Mawage. Alright, so when wives submit to their husbands, it honors God. So as is fitting for those who belong to the Lord. So when this was written in this culture, men were superior. There were people who were slaves. Women didn't have a big place in society. And so they never really had a leadership role outside of the role of the home in society. And you have to ask yourself, okay, in the Bible, there's passages that were specifically for their time and not for us today. And there's other commandments or principles that are for all time. Does this work? And if this is done correctly, this works. Alright, so the wife isn't supposed to rule her husband's life, though a husband must put his wife's interests first. There should be mutual love and respect, and they should care for each other. Basically, if a husband is trying to get a wife to do something that's immoral or wrong or isn't something that should be done for a godly woman, then she should reject that. If a wife is being abused or verbally abused, she should get help. She should go get help from the church, she should get help from other people. Maybe it's a good time for her to separate, to get help. Sometimes men are verbally abusive or physically abusive, and they need to change. And we need to do what we can to help with that. So submission is an awesome thing when it works correctly. Submission is an awesome thing when it works the way Andy Stanley says. Here it is. Stanley explains marital submission. He said, When I was 26, I flew to Washington, D.C. to be a groomsman in a friend's wedding. After the reception, the wedding party of 12 or so headed to an upscale bar in Georgetown. Being part of the wedding party, I tagged along. The turning point of the conversation came when the girl next to the girl who started all of this said, and I quote, Andy, I heard a preacher say that the man had to be the head of the home because a two-headed home is like a two-headed monster. Is that what you believed? That the man is the head? Here's the gist of what I said, which was directed at the girls who were asking the question. Yeah, he says, before I answer your question, imagine you're married to a man who genuinely believes you are the most fantastic person on the planet. He's crazy about you. You have no doubt that your happiness is his top priority. He listens when you talk, he honors you in public. To use an old-fashioned term, he cherishes you. He's not afraid to make a decision. He values your opinion. He leads, but he listens. He's responsible. He's not argumentative. You have no doubt that he would give his life for you if the need arose. You never worry about him being unfaithful. In fact, to quote an old flamingo song, he only has eyes for you. As I was saying all this, the folks on the other end of the table tuned in and began to listen. The longer I talked, the more I sensed the resistance ebbing. When I finished, I paused and asked, would either of you have trouble following a man like that? The girl to my right blurted out. Well, heck no. That's not really what she said. Heck no! I want to meet that guy. Everybody laughed. Without realizing it, She made my point. It's easy, perhaps natural, to submit to someone who is gener who generally has your best interest in mind. There's no fear, no reason to resist. Conversely, anyone who has your best interest in mind has in effect submitted to you. That person has chosen to leverage him or herself for your benefit, basically saying, You first. And God calls the husband and wife to live in this relationship. And it says, husbands, love your wives. So when the wife is following the godly leadership of the husband, it makes it possible for the husband to fulfill his role. When the wife encourages him, it makes it possible for the husband to be excited about what he's doing and to care for and to love his wife in a way that should be, in a way that it should be so that the marriage works. There can't be two people in the driver's seat, but yet there should always be a conversation as to what you're going to do and how you're going to do it. It's not just the husband making all the rules and the wife just follows along and doesn't have anything to say. So when it came time for my wife and I to move, I didn't just go, oh, I think God's calling us to move, pack up your stuff, here we go. Instead, I said to her, I said, I think God might be working in our lives so that we would move and make this change. And she's like, you know, God's working on my heart in the same way. And we found that we were like in agreement that we were going to do this thing together. I didn't have to convince her or say, woman, get behind me and submit. I never have to say that. And most likely she'd probably hurt me if I did. But the whole idea of a husband and wife making ideas and plans together, but yet the husband knows God is holding him accountable to be the spiritual leader of his home, to treat his wife well, to love his wife, and to care for his wife, and to do all he can to make the marriage work. A married couple was celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. At the party, everybody wanted to know how they managed to stay married for so long in this day and age. The husband responded, When we were first married, we came to an agreement, I would make all the major decisions, and my wife would make all the minor decisions. At which point the wife took up the tail. And in 60 years of marriage, we've never needed to make a major decision. So I guess that's one way that it works. Anyway, I have a lot more to say about this, and I can't do it justice, so we're just going to continue this. But I mean, the whole idea of marriage working like a perfect machine is when you get a husband who sees the responsibility for his family, takes it seriously, and does all he can before God to make the marriage work, to make the children obey in a way that doesn't hurt them but helps them to become successful in life, to do all that he can to love his wife, to care for his wife, to show and provide, provide for his wife so that she can be successful in the role that God has for her. So the husband is supposed to love and care. But again, it's amazing how fast time goes, but want to finish this in the future. Before I end, though, just on the children part, there's a problem sometimes when it comes to parents and Christian parents because they don't want to be harsh with their children, they don't want to embitter their children. So what they do is they don't discipline their children at all. They're like, well, you know, he's having so much fun or she's having so much fun, and you know, they'll probably be okay. I'll just let that go. I'll clean up that mess later. It won't be a big deal. Yeah, little Billy hits me now, it doesn't really hurt. Well, if they clean it, make a mess now and they don't clean it up, they're not going to clean it up in the future. If little Billy hits you now when he's like four and it doesn't hurt very much, what if he's still hitting you when he's like 15 and he weighs like 200 pounds? So you want to get that kid to have self-control, get him to have respect for others, get him to care about things and the things of God. And the Bible has a lot to say about disciplining your children, even spanking them within reason. So not harshly out of abuse is a form of discipline, not to get your anger out. Proverbs 13 24. Those who spare the rod of discipline hate their children. Those who love their children care enough to discipline them. Proverbs 23, 13. Don't fail to discipline your children. They won't die if you spank them. Proverbs 29, 15. To discipline a child produces wisdom, but a mother is disgraced by an undisciplined child. So there's much to say about that too. And there's no way we could cover everything, your felt needs for parenting, or what you need to learn in parenting. But all those resources out there, the right now video resources and the stuff from the ministries that I mentioned already, will really help you. And if you need more resources, maybe I can point you in the right direction. So the next time we get together, we're going to talk about again when wives submit, when husbands love, when children obey, and when mothers and fathers are careful. Let me pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much that you've given us your word when it comes to marriage and parenting and how important it is. Lord, we thank you for the people here that are married. We pray that their marriage would be strong. Lord, if they were married before and something that fell apart, that this marriage they're in, whatever marriage they're in now, Lord, that would work. That you'd heal the broken, that you'd heal the messed-up families, that you'd help the parents to get along with their children, that there'd be peace in the home. For those people that are among us that don't have kids, that are single, Lord, that they would be able to enjoy their singleness and make a difference with all the extra time and resources that they have, and that you would just fulfill every part of our lives with your plan, whether we're single or married, or if our marriages fell apart and we're divorced, or if our spouse died and we're widows, Lord, we pray that you would help us to do your will and to help others to learn to do your will. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.