1. Loving our children as parents

2. Session Two: Building a strong family
Overview
Session One:
Healthy Relationships
Session Two: Building a strong family
Session Three: Meeting Our Children’s needs
Session Four: Building Personal Responsibility
Session Five: Teaching Healthy Relationships
Session Six:
Our long term aim—loving our kids so they live God’s Kingdom

3. Session Two: Building a strong family

4. Our journey from fear based parenting to loving our children

8. The world says that parenting is making our kids obey us and do what we say. God’s model to us is about developing self-control and protecting our loving relationship.
Families should meet three needs:
Physical—food and shelter
Training, modeling and equipping in life skills
Emotional and relational needs of children

9. When all these needs are met, we call that family functional.
Functional families
Consider problems and conflicts to be part of life.
Each day, they look to God
for supernatural empowering, wisdom and love.
The parents see the
issues and work to
resolve them from a
love-based approach.

10. Dysfunctional families
When the family needs are not being met,
we call that family dysfunctional.
In some families, the relationships are damaging
and wounding. Children are taught lies about
themselves that can cause lifelong damage.
These lies are the same ones that the parents
learned about themselves.
Dysfunctional families deny problems and sweep
them ’under the carpet’. Feelings and emotions
are not important, so they are never dealt with
and problems are never solved.

12. What is a family for?
A family provides support as our children will experience
rejection, disappointment and failure. We get our nurture
from our mothers but our identity from our fathers.
A family provides fun
A family provides a moral compass so children learn about
good and bad behaviour, personal responsibility and learn
values such as honesty, generosity, sexual morality, etc.
A family proves a model for relating to other people. Our
children learn to relate in the family through experiencing,
observing, modelling and practising relationships. In the
family, our relationship with God is experienced .

13. Developing our child’s self worth and identity

14. Our parenting style impacts a child’s life

15. Developing our child’s self worth and identity
What impact do you think the father’s words and actions had on his son?
Why do you think the father was acting this way?
What experiences have you had from your parents?
How has this shaped your parenting approach?
What approach do you as a couple use with your children?

16. Parent/Child relationships
Parents give children confidence by developing in their lives—
Security
Self-worth
Significance
The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17 
Mother and Father relationships
Sibling to Sibling relationships

17. Building family strengths
Communication
Togetherness
Shared activities
Acceptance 
Affection
Support
Commitment
Resilience
Building family strengths

18. ESTABLISHING A HEALTHY FAMILY LIFE
Healthy Play
Healthy Bonding
Healthy Routines and Habits

19. “That’s all for now folks!”