Enjoy Your Family

By Silas Eke

Enjoy your family is a book on how to reflect the Christian life in the family and how to make the family an enjoyable community for the rearing of members of the Church and Government. It was first released in 1989 as a compilation of articles written and published in the popular newspaper column “Ministering Christ” of the Nigerian Sunday Concord. This edition, in addition to the fundamental teachings, introduces “Think it over” and “What to do” sections to encourage readers’ participation in applying the teachings to their lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Silas Eke
• Release date: May 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311677822

Silas Eke

Silas Eke became a new creature in Christ Jesus in September 1969 while on the war front during the Nigeria/Biafra war of 1967-1970. Since after the war, He has actively pursued programmes and activities that helped him to grow in his Christian life. He had his Biblical studies in Liberty Home Bible Institute, affiliated with the Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia; USA. He also had Christian Leadership Courses in Singapore with Haggai Institute for Leadership Training.Silas has been an Elder in Evangelical Church of West Africa (Now Evangelical Church Winning All), an indigenized outgrowth of the Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) since 1975 and during those years he has been involved in Preaching, Teaching, Bible Studies and Seminars. He served in various positions of responsibility in The Gideons International including the position of the First Executive Director of the Gideons International in Nigeria from 1994 until his retirement in 2006. Since then, he has been engaged in developing an indigenous language Church in Lagos in order to help those with little or no western education know the Lord.As a writer, his publishing credits include over 200 newspaper column articles and one book. His column “Ministering Christ” in the Sunday Concord received a wide following when it ran from 1985 to 1989 and received hundreds of encouraging letters and feedback from readers, some of which were published by the newspaper. His book “Enjoy your family” has received favorable reviews from many.Silas has been married to Roli Eke for 35 years. They have 4 children and an amazing granddaughter

Book preview

Enjoy your family

Published by Silas Eke at Smashwords

Copyright 2014 Silas Eke

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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Table of contents

Foreword

Preface

Chapter 1 - The Marriage machine

Chapter 2 - The Origin of the Human Family

Chapter 3 - The Role of the Wife in Christian Family

Chapter 4 - The Role of the Husband in Christian Family

Chapter 5 - The Role of Parents in Christian Family

Chapter 6 - Prescription for Rearing Children

Chapter 7 - The Role of Children in Christian Family

Chapter 8 - Building Blocks for a Healthy Family Unit Part 1

Chapter 9 - Building Blocks for a Healthy Family Unit Part 2

Chapter 10 - Building Blocks for a Healthy Family Unit Part 3

Chapter 11 - Building Blocks for a Healthy Family Unit Part 4

Chapter 12 - Repairing Cracking and Crumbling Family Units Part 1

Chapter 13 - Repairing Cracking and Crumbling Family Units Part 2

Chapter 14 - Repairing Cracking and Crumbling Family Units Part 3

Chapter 15 - Repairing Cracking and Crumbling Family Units Part 4

Chapter 16 - The Role of House Helps in the Christian Home

Dedications and Acknowledgements

About Silas Eke

Foreword

It is with great pleasure that I commend this to all who will lay hand on it to read, meditate and allow the Holy Spirit to do some work of graceful renewal in their relationship. For that is what the work is all about – RELATIONSHIPS.

God has set up two institutions in His wisdom – the Home or Family and the Church. And each is dependent on the other. For the home has even been the child’s first Church and the child’s first School. Both Church and schools find the necessities for refresher courses in seminars and retreats often. The Home which is such a vital link that determines the strength of the Church – the chain, never thinks of the need for refresher courses.

In actual fact this is the one institution that many enter into without preparations. By the time the officiating Priest says among other things: Therefore, nobody should enter into it (marriage) lightly, unadvisedly or wantonly but thoughtfully, reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly and in the fear of God, duly considering the cause for which marriage was ordained, and in his charge to the main actors at weddings the Priest says: For know for sure that if any persons are joined together otherwise than a God’s word allows, their marriage is not lawful, they then realize how little they have prepared. I have found many entering marriage with their eyes closed to all they need to know.

Mr. Silas Ngozi Eke, who for many years has regularly kept a Christian column going on one of the popular Sunday Newspapers in our land has worked hard under the Holy Spirit to put this valuable work together so that many can enter marriage with the counsel of God and those in it already can discover that God being the Master Potter can re-make marriages in which the couples are willing to surrender themselves and their RELATIONSHIP to God.

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.(Ephesians 5: 21). God waits to bless you and make you a blessing to others as with an open mind you read through this book, with prayers in your heart and a surrendered Spirit to Him who loved, loves and shall ever love you. His plans for you are always and eternally good.

God bless you richly.

OLUSEGUN KUTI

(A witness of Jesus the Christ)

Preface

As I reflect on what made me write this book, I now realize that I did not just set out to write a book. Several things worked together to produce the Book you have in your hands.

First, my recollection of my early childhood in my family and how we loved our home and enjoyed being together. I saw my parents as role models and regarded our family as an example of what a Christian family should be. I thought I should find a way to pass it to other people. I made a very brief reference to this in the acknowledgements. I tried to model my own family in the same way I saw my parents model theirs. So in effect this book is a testimony of what I tried to do in my family.

Then in 1984, I was called by a friend to take-up writing Christian articles in a column he started in a National Newspaper in Nigeria. Before I took up the work of the columnist I had attended a few courses which among other things emphasized the centrality of the family in stable government and Church. So when the opportunity offered itself, I used my Newspaper column to pass messages on how to make the family an enjoyable community for the rearing of members of the Church and Government. It received very wide acclaim and followership. I received so many letters and questions. I saw, in most of the questions, hearts crying out for direction on how to live the Christian life and how their life could reflect in the family and society. I also saw, in our society, increasing cracks in the family unit. Many Pastors were indeed preaching good sermons on the pulpit, but most of the people who needed the sermons were either out of the Church or have developed hardened ears or thought that the sermons were too stereotyped and did not come down to the basics. They needed something they could identify with. Reading the sermon on the pages of the Newspaper was more like it than listening to the Pastor who always said thus says the Lord and who probably does not reflect what he says in his relationship with the people.

As I travelled across the country, many people simply identified with me as the pastor who writes Ministering Christ and wanted to have personal copies of the articles I wrote. Everything in this book was written as articles for Sunday afternoon reading for the many who got hooked to my column. I have three other books that emerged from those articles I published in the Newspaper during the six years I ministered Christ on the Pages of the Sunday Concord. These will be published as soon as possible.

In order to make the Book practical, I introduced something that would make the reader reflect on what he/she read and apply it to his own life. I introduced a three- question summary of what each chapter contained called Think it over and this was followed with three assignments for the reader covering what the chapter contained. It was called What to do.

Looking at the finished work now, I am delighted that I have tried within my limitations to make some contribution to instilling some order into the family unit.

-Silas N.Eke

Chapter One

The Marriage machine

A lot of thoughts enter my head each time I walk or drive through very busy streets in Lagos or anywhere else. Human beings flow like water in very large number. How do all these people find their way home at the end of the day? How do they all identify their relations in the crowd? Watching people as they move about can make very interesting scenery and it is quite instructive too. Think about the many different kinds, shapes and sizes of people. They are found everywhere displaying varying emotions and activities.

Another intriguing and facilitating thing about human beings is how these people pair up into marriages. I have often wondered how John and Mary even got together. Have you ever wondered how Chike and Iyabo met and now they are serious and proper? Ibrahim is always serious looking and Adaku is worse; her look borders on antagonism and they live together. Do they ever have fun? On the other hand, Joseph and Gladys are always laughing and tardy – how do they survive the dead-lines of life?

Marriage pairs come in all shapes and sizes and combinations. There are matched up some