Develop family habits of cultivating love and respect for each other.

• Talk often with your children about the family as the greatest source -- apart from God -- of happiness and security.
• Help them to see, in a non-judgmental way, the damage and pain that broken families and lack of loyalty cause, especially in non-Christian homes.

Find in Genesis 3:23-24 why a man must not let in-laws meddle with a new marriage.

Find in Ephesians 5:22-24 a guideline for wives who have loving, Christian husbands..

Find in Ephesians 5:25-33 what husbands must do, for their wives to submit joyfully to them.

Find in Ephesians 6:1-4 guidelines for child-parent relationships.

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T&M Student Activity Guide page 30a

To deal with the leader's responsibilities to his/her own family: Leadership Handbooks of Practical Theology, Volume 3, Leadership & Administration, Gen. Editor James D. Berkley, section 5.

If you work cross-culturally, then discern the family structure. The local family system may have a normal configuration somewhat different from your own.

• Find out what are the terms for family members in the local language; these will often indicate important relations; for example, there may be no terms for brother and sister and have different one for older and younger siblings.
• If families are polygamous, then there are varying differences of relationship between siblings.
• In spite of cultural differences, present Bible teaching on the family as God's ideal to which we must begin to conform.

Deal wisely with polygamy.

• Certainly you should baptize a polygamist who repents, believes and receives the Holy Spirit, for we are commanded to baptize all who believe.
• Do not require a polygamist to send away wives. He himself may choose to do so and will find ways to do it that will preserve the women's dignity.
• Uphold the ideal of monogamy. If a baptized member later takes another wife, then deal with that as sin.