1. Odds and Ends Parenting Teenagers Relating to Your Kids as Adults
The Joys, Opportunities, and Challenges of Being a Grandparent
Working Well Together With Your Spouse as You Raise Your Kids
Going Through a Series of Fictitious Examples

2. Review – Similarities and Distinctions Between Husband and Wife
The scriptures teach that many of the things that are true of husbands are true of wives and vice versa:
Together made in the image of God. (Gen. 1:27)
“Fellow heirs” of salvation. (Gal. 3:26-29; 1Pet 3:7b)
They are to love each other (Eph. 5:25, Titus 2:4)
Have authority over and are to be honored by their children. (Eph. 6:1-2; Col. 3:20)
But the scriptures also spell out some very important distinctions between the husband and wife and how they are to function within the marriage and the family.

3. Men’s Roles and Responsibilities
Men are the head of their household: But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband (1Corinhians 11:3)
Men are to serve as spiritual leaders in the home:
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:25-27)
If there is anything [wives] desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. (1Corinthians 14:35a)
Men are to manage their families:
He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect… their wives are to be women worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything. (1Tim 3:4,11 NIV)

4. Men’s Roles and Responsibilities
Men are to love their wives:
As much as they love themselves: Husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies… After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church… each one of you… must love his wife as he loves himself (Ephesians 5:28b-29, 33b NIV).
With the same degree of self-sacrifice that Christ shows for the church: Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her (Ephesians 5:25)
Men are to be aware of their wives weaknesses and are to protect them and treat them with appropriate gentleness, consideration, and honor:
Husbands… treat your wives with consideration as the weaker partners and show them honor as fellow heirs of the grace of life. In this way nothing will hinder your prayers. (1Peter 3:7 NET)

5. Men’s Roles and Responsibilities
Men are seen as the primary breadwinner in the family:
The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. (Genesis 2:15)
And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." (Gen 3:17-19)

6. Men’s Roles and Responsibilities
Men are seen as the primary breadwinner in the family:
Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men. (Proverbs 22:29)
He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment. (Proverbs 12:11 NIV)
For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat." (2Thessalonians 3:10 NIV)
But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1Timothy 5:8)

7. Women’s Roles and Responsibilities
Wives are to be “busy at home”:
Train the younger women to… be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home (Titus 2:4b-5 NIV)
She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls. She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night. In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet. She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple. (Proverbs 31:13-22 NIV)

8. Women’s Roles and Responsibilities
Wives are to love and take care of their husbands and children:
Train the young women to love their husbands and children (Tit 2:4)
The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. (Proverbs 31:11-12)
She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. (Pro 31:27)
Wives are to respect their husbands:
Let the wife see that she respects her husband. (Ephesians 5:32)

9. Women’s Roles and Responsibilities
A good wife will bring honor to her husband and ultimately to herself:
Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land. (Proverbs 31:23)
Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: "Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.“ (Pro 31:28-29)
Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates. (Proverbs 31:31)

10. Authority Within the Marriage
No organization can function well without there being lines of authority within that organization; whether it be a government, a military, a place of employment, a church, or the family.
As we have already seen, within the family, God has placed children under the authority of their parents.

11. Authority Within the Marriage
Likewise, within the marriage God has placed wives under the authority of their husbands:
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. (Eph. 5:22-24)

12. Authority Within the Marriage
Likewise, within the marriage God has placed wives under the authority of their husbands:
Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives… For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear. (1Pet 3:1-2,5-6 NIV)

13. Questions to Consider
Do you agree that the passages that I presented today show that there is to be a distinction between how the husband and wife function within the marriage and the family?
Do you sense within our culture a resistance to this idea of distinctions between husband and wife, male and female? If so, why do you think that is?
Of the roles and responsibilities that I presented for husbands and wives, which do you personally find most difficult to do and why?
What do you think about the idea of God establishing authority within the marriage? Is this a concept that you struggle with? If so, how?