A) Read Preparing for Marriage (pp. 7-114)

Read Part 1 and Part 2 in the book and answer the questions (as a couple or individually).

B) Listen to Building Oneness sermon

This is a sermon Pastor Crockett preached from Genesis 1 and 2 at a couples conference at the Wilds Camp. After listening, answer the questions below:

Application questions for Building Oneness:

• What do you think the balance of leaving your parents, while still honoring them, looks like for your marriage?

• What are some ways you can do a better job of leaving your parents?

• When you reflect on how you live your life day in and day out, do you see you have a clear understanding and practice of the truth that you do not exist for yourself? Based on your answer, in what ways is that manifested?

• How can you plan to cleave to your spouse and weave your lives together (sexually, emotionally, personally, socially, financially)?

• When you think about married couples who have stayed together, what have you seen them do to resist the natural drift toward isolation?

• These questions are for both fiancees:

• Which of the results of sin in Gen. 3 (circle below) destroys oneness your marriage?

  • Shame

  • Guilt

  • Fear

  • Blame shifting

  • Battle for control

• What are the top three difficulties or problems you’ve experienced since you’ve been together?

• Do you routinely sin in a way that harms your relationship (Each of you answer. Be open to your fiancee’s answer.)

• What are some of the ways you are different from your fiancee?

  • Personality

  • Family background

  • Interests

  • Education

  • Entertainment choices

  • Spending habits

  • Ways you use your free time

• How can you communicate to your fiancee: “You are the only one for me. I am committed to you for life. You are God’s gift to me.” What can you do next week to help them understand and feel that more?

C) Watch Understanding Submission Sermon

This is a sermon Pastor Crockett preached from 1 Peter. After watching, answer the questions below:

Application questions for Understanding Submission:

1.    What did you learn from this scripture passage?

2.    Why is submission such a divisive topic for this generation?

3.    What influences in your life have shaped how you view the word “submission”?

4.    How does the biblical submission taught here differ from other terms such as “domination” or “dictatorship”?

5.    How does the Trinity show that women can have a different role than men, while still being equal?

6.    Future Wives: How can you customize your submission to your future husband?

7.    Future Husbands: How does your future wife complete you? What inadequacies and areas of weakness does she fill?

8.    Are you submitting to Christ’s rule in your life now?

D) Watch Real Beauty

This is a sermon Pastor Crockett preached from 1 Peter. After watching, answer the questions below:

Application questions:

1.    What did the Holy Spirit teach you from this passage?

2.    How can you share the Gospel while living a winsome life?

3.    Why do you think winning someone to Christ with your witness + your lifestyle (1) could be more effective than constantly nagging, arguing, and harassing someone with the Gospel?

4.    Future Wives: Why can it be hard to show your future husband respect (2)? What are specific ways in your marriage that you could show your future husband respect?

5.    Future Husbands: What are ways you can earn your wife's respect?

6.    Single men: Do you think the way you live and treat women earns their respect? What areas where you can improve?

7.    How much pressure do you feel to look a certain way on the outside? Do you ever feel ashamed of your body? Why do you think God says it's not your external adorning (3), but the hidden person of your heart that makes you beautiful (4)? 

A) Read Preparing for Marriage (pp. 115-254)

Read Part 3 and Part 4 in the book and answer the questions (as a couple or individually).

B) Listen to Two Are Better Than One sermon

This is a sermon Pastor Crockett preached from Ecclesiastes at a couples conference at the Wilds Camp. After listening, answer the questions below:

What are times or ways you can start to feel lonely?

Though God creates us for relationships, in what ways do you think sin hurts your relationships to your spouse, to your family, to your friends, to your coworkers?

How will you plan to balance your work with your family?

What happens when you fill both hands with hard work?

How can you balance having work in one hand and rest in your other hand?

If “two are better than one” (Ecclesiastes 4:9), write down one way in which your future spouse’s differences have ultimately been beneficial to you.

What is one thing you can do this next week to break down these barriers and build up your relationship?

Read Ecclesiastes 4:9-16 and list some benefits of relationships:

What are ways your future spouse makes you more effective?

What are some ways your future spouse helps you?

What are ways you could provide spiritual warmth in your home?

What are some ways you could provide spiritual strength for your future spouse?

How are you cultivating your relationship with the Friend who sticks closer than a brother? How will you be prepared for the day when you may be separated from your future spouse?

How does your relationship with Christ draw you closer to your future spouse?

How can you keep starting these conversations about your marriage? Is there a good time or place you can meet every month?

If/when you get on the crazy cycle of harming your marriage, how can you get off, and start a positive cycle of growth in your marriage?

C) Watch Loving Leadership sermon

This is a sermon Pastor Crockett preached from 1 Peter. After watching, answer the questions below:

Application Questions:

1.    What did you learn from this passage?

2.    Why is it important as a single person to think biblically about what you're looking for in a spouse?

3.    How do you think the roles God gives in a family point to Christ's love and leadership of His church (Eph. 5:22-25)?

4.    How do you think Christians' ignoring God's roles for a family could distort people's perception of Christ's love and leadership of his church?

5.    As a man, do you think you would tend to be a dictator or an abdicator in your marriage? How can you seek to be a loving leader instead?

6.    As a (future) wife, why would you appreciate your husband dwelling with you (presence & intimacy)?

7.    As a (future) husband, what do you think you will do to try to live with your wife in an understanding way (7b)?

8.    Next we'll look at how not honoring your wife can result in a husband's prayers being hindered. Why do you think the Father would break fellowship with a man who is mistreating His daughter (a co-heir of the grace of life)? 

D) Watch Honor and Grow sermon

This is a sermon Pastor Crockett preached from 1 Peter.