The Family Manual: A Practical Guide to Raising a Christian Family

By Leslie J. Fatheree

Have you ever wished that someone would write a manual on how to raise your family?

The Family Manual is just the book for you! Leslie gives you practical application to biblical truths about marriage, raising children, and keeping your family together. Everything you need to know from finding a godly spouse, to raising fa

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Mar 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9798887384849

Leslie J. Fatheree

Leslie Fatheree is a happily married wife and an attentive homemaker. She has dedicated her adult life to working side by side her husband, Brian, in ministry and to raising their five children in the ad-monition of the Lord. God has given her revelation and creative insights on how to raise a Christian family. After almost thirty years of being a home educator and raising five godly adults, Leslie has been given the assignment to share those rev-elations and insights with other families.

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The Family Manual:

A Practical Guide to Raising a Christian Family

by Leslie J. Fatheree

The Family Manual

Trilogy Christian Publishers

A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

2442 Michelle Drive

Tustin, CA 92780

Copyright © 2023 by Leslie Fatheree 

Scripture quotations marked amp are taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked msg are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright (c) 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked

nlt

are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked

tpt

are from The Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2017, 2018 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ThePassionTranslation.com

For information, address Trilogy Christian Publishing

Rights Department, 2442 Michelle Drive, Tustin, CA 92780.

Trilogy Christian Publishing/ TBN and colophon are trademarks of Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Cover Design by Jaimee Shaye Sconziano

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Trilogy Christian Publishing.

Manufactured in the United States of America

Trilogy Disclaimer: The views and content expressed in this book are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views and doctrine of Trilogy Christian Publishing or the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 979-8-88738-483-2

ISBN:  ٩٧٩-٨-٨٨٧٣٨-٤٨٤-٩

Dedication

This book is dedicated to

~ the Lord. Without You there would be no life, no family, no marriage, and no book. Abba, You are everything!

~ my husband, Brian, and our five children, Hannah, Megan, Scott, Matthew, and Abbie. You are my world, and your love and support are my treasure.

~ all the Christian families out there. Keep fighting the good fight of faith over your families!

Acknowledgments

I am grateful for my husband, Brian. He always believes in me and encourages me to keep pressing on. He is my biggest fan.

I thank my daughter, Megan, for her literary help. Being our resident author, all the questions go to her, and she always comes through for me.

I am so thankful for all of our friends and family who prayed. It made all the difference! Your fervent heartfelt prayers have availed much.

Introduction

I am first of all, a daughter of the Most High God. I belong to Him and everything about me is wrapped up in Him. Jesus is my Lord and Savior and has been since age twelve. The Holy Spirit lives inside of me as the guiding influence of my life. I’m a lover of the Word, praise, and worship. These three things have shaped and developed my Christian walk like nothing else.

I am a wife, having been happily married to Brian for almost thirty-three years. He is a pastor, by trade, so I have been a pastor’s wife but also a partner in the pastoring. We have walked many roads together in three different states and at least thirteen different houses.

I am a mama. I came wired that way, getting notes sent home in grade school for my hovering and helping. It’s my destiny, I am meant to be a mom. However, I believe my skills have vastly improved since grade school.

Not only am I a mom, but I am a boy mom, a girl mom, a special needs mom, and a homeschool mom. It’s a wonderful life that I live with our five children and now our four (and counting) grandchildren. Learning together is our lifestyle.

I have been a teacher at home and in the Church. Simple, practical, and hands-on is my approach. Common sense and the leading of the Holy Spirit work hand in hand to bring the point home.

Unfortunately, starting a family doesn’t come with an instruction book, so I have written this manual to share with you the things the Lord has taught our family through the years. We are not perfect, but we have raised our five children to adulthood. They are all God honoring, in the Church, and pursuing the Lord and His destiny for their lives. The instructions in this manual will hopefully inspire and encourage you to allow the Lord to also teach your family how to live His way.

This manual is specifically written for the Christian families in the United States. The Church in America is hurting, and family is the foundation of His Church. If we can improve and thrive one family at a time, the Church will grow stronger. The Lord is coming back for a pure and spotless bride. We can all do our part to be ready.

Chapter 1

Newlyweds

Are you the one for me?

I feel attracted to you, but is it God?

The only way to know if you’re making the right decision in choosing a spouse is to PRAY and SEEK God. Not just one of you, but both of you. Separately. You want your decision to be God-led, not hormone or emotion led. Pray and, when you get together to talk about it, listen and look for the confirmation or red flag of a yes or no.

How to hear God:

Become born again. (Follow the steps in Romans 10:9,10)

When we belong to the Good Shepherd (Jesus), we hear His voice. (John 10:14,27)

Come to Him in prayer and ask Him for what you want. (I John 5:14,15)

LISTEN for His answer. God’s voice in you often sounds like your own voice or a voice you know. (For example, Samuel went to Eli when God was calling him, thinking it was Eli who spoke.)

Often, God’s answer or His voice is the first thing that comes up inside you after you stop speaking, because He wants to talk to you.

How to pray for a spouse:

Write down a list of attributes you want in a spouse. Remember, God cares about your preferences but also knows what’s best. Let your list include things that are physical, mental, spiritual, character, etc.

Lay your petition before the Lord. (Philippians 4:6)

Begin to thank Him for bringing that person into your life even before you see them. (This is faith in action.)

Ask the Lord for scriptures to pray as you petition and thank God. (For example: Brian prayed Proverbs 18:22 and Matthew 7:11. It says that a wife is a good thing, and that God gives good things to those who keep on asking Him. So, Brian would thank the Lord for his good thing! Me!)

When you make the decision, commit yourselves to it. Marriage is just that: a commitment. Commit to love that person, stay with that person, and become one with that person.

Brian and I both prepared ourselves to be married by reading good books and working on our own relationships with the Lord. We used scripture to pray for our spouse-to-be. We were watching for the one the Lord was bringing for each of us. When the time became right for us to shift into being engaged, we were already good friends.

We were very aware that our friendship was suddenly shifting into more than friends. We took time separately, over a long weekend, to pray and seek God for His will. When we got back together to talk, Brian had received a confirmation from a friend as they prayed together concerning our relationship. I felt a definite yes after praying, and when I saw Brian again and took his hand, I was sure.

Brian asked me to marry him in July of 1989. We went to pre-marital counseling where we were asked a lot of questions to make us think about who we are, what we wanted, and how we would react to many different scenarios of life. It was a good exercise to check how compatible and committed we were to being married and living life together. We read more books and had many open and very honest conversations. There were several times where we shared with each other all the positive and negative things we had done in our school and college years. We did not hide anything about our past from one another. We also made discussing our dreams for the future a priority.

We made the decision to conform ourselves to each other. For example, I was a very minimal sports fan, but Brian was an avid one. I chose to learn about the sports Brian loved. I watched with him, and he would explain the rules of the game to me. He drew me in and shared it with me. Also, Brian learned to shop with me. He didn’t groan, complain, or roll his eyes. He viewed it as time well-spent with me.

We were married in January of 1990. We did not