THE SECRET OF FAMILY HAPPINESS

The Bible helps older people too.  For instance, consider the experience of a certain Japanese couple.  The husband was short-tempered and sometimes violent.  First, the couple's daughters began to study the Bible, despite their parent's opposition.  Then,the husband joined his daughters, but the wife continued to object.  Over the years, however, she noticed the good effect  of Bible principles on her family.  Her daughters took good care of her, and her husband became much milder.  Such changes moved the woman to look into the Bible for herself and it had the same good effect on her.  This elderly lady repeatedly said: "We became a real married couple." 

These individuals are among the great many who have learned the secret of family happiness.  They have accepted the Bible's counsel and have applied it.  True, they live in the same violent, immoral, economically stressed world as everyone else.  Moreover, they are imperfect, but they find happiness in trying to do the will of the Originator of the family arrangement.  As the Bible says, Jehovah God is  "the One teaching you to benefit yourself, the One causing you to tread in the way in which you should walk." -Isaiah 48:17.  

Although the Bible was completed almost two thousand years ago, its counsel is truly up-to-date.  Further, it was written for all people. The Bible is not an American or a Western book.  Jehovah"made out of one many every nation of men," and He knows the makeup of humans everywhere.  (Acts 17:26) Bible principles work for everyone.  If you apply them, you too will come to know the secret of family happiness. 

Next time: PREPARING FOR A SUCCESSFUL MARRIAGE; CHAPTER TWO

From the book:THE SECRET OF FAMILY HAPPINESS, 1996