Support
Coming alongside others and providing gentle, appropriate assistance with a problem or struggle. (Galatians 6:2)
When a missionary prepares to leave for another country, he gathers a support team around him to pray and give to enable him to fulfill his calling. When you have trouble with your computer at work, your tech support team is called in to evaluate the problem and fix it. The truth is, we all need a little help to make it through the craziness of life! Who is the support team in your life right now? What are you experiencing that you could use some extra support to walk through or succeed in? Let’s take some time this week to talk about support and how your spouse can meet this need for you.
Be intentional about setting aside a few minutes this week or planning a date night to discuss support together.
Husband, would you lead this time by reviewing the statements to be completed or questions being asked so that you know how to make the most of your time?
1. What seems to be one or two of the more difficult issues your spouse faces currently? Are there things at work, at home, with children, not having children, financial, relational, illness, or with extended family that would make the top 2 list?
2. What are ways you can come alongside and gently help him/her carry that load? Have you asked him/her?
3. Would you ask your spouse and allow him/her to tell you what he/she sees as the top-of-the-list issues? Remember to listen well and ask God to help you properly respond to the grief or sorrow or frustration expressed.
4. How do you feel when your spouse asks you about the issues that you are currently facing and offers to help where possible? How would your expressed gratitude help open further conversations and lead to healthy ways of dealing with your own and your spouse’s most difficult issues?
5. A tension to manage is different from a problem to solve. A tension to manage involves recurring events, multiple methods of dealing with the situations, difficulty in fixing the problem because there may be no way to “fix it”. A problem to solve is just that….there is a discoverable solution that actually ends the problem so that it won’t come up again. A leaky faucet is a “problem to solve”. Managing your calendar or your budget is a “tension to manage”. How would knowing the difference between a “tension to manage” and a “problem to solve” help you discover ways to support your spouse by coming alongside and gently, appropriately help carry his/her load or burden?
Q4K: Yours or Others’
1. What challenges are happening in the life of your Child/Child of Focus where you can offer support?
2. How would great listening be a way to offer support to your child or discover what kind of support is needed?
3. Could you and your spouse or another friend discuss how we as parents could cooperate in offering support to a child or each other? Supporting your spouse helps your child see and experience how support is done.