Category: Families Where Grace is in Place – VanVonderen

  • Families Where Grace Is In Place – Chapter 1

    We’ve just started this book for my group, and I thought it’d be nice to share some of my thoughts.

    I can definitely see how my actions fall into the “fallen” category (as in the way people act after the fall of Adam and Eve). I am prone to being the controlling type. Actually, I think everyone is, just some people are more passive-agressive about it, and others are more outwardly aggressive. I think I’m the latter.

    I liked Mr. VanVonderen’s description of pre-fall relationships. Its only been in recent years that I’ve started to embrace the fact that the post-fall consequences are not what we need to be living in and accepting. Jesus showed us a new way to live. For some reason I was always taught that it was just how life is, and we had to accept that now, thanks to the fall, the sexes would be at war.

    I like this quote. It made me laugh out loud

    Pay close attention to Adam’s first response when he awoke and saw Eve: “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh” (v. 23). He did not say, “Great, now I have someone to go get me my stuff, do the chores I don’t feel like doing, and cater to my every need.” And the Word of God goes on: “For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh” (v. 24). This was God’s plan for marriage: entering into the process of becoming one flesh. It is not to “subdue” or to “rule over” each other. Rather, the plan for marriage is a dependence upon God; two becoming one flesh, co-ruling, a relationship in the image of God.

    I am happy to say that I do not have a demanding or demeaning husband. He is happy to serve right along side of me, but I still thought the quote was pretty funny.

    I hope to have some deep thoughts about future chapters ) For now, I’m just amused. I’m wondering if the men in our group will take offense to VanVonderen’s strong egalitarian message… We shall see!

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