Cooperation Promotes Spiritual Progress

A SPIRIT of cooperation is essential for those who want to make progress in raising a spiritually-minded family. When Jehovah created the first couple, he highlighted the need for cooperation. Eve was to work with Adam as his “complement.” (Gen. 2:18) Marriage should be a partnership, with the man and woman supporting each other. (Eccl. 4:9-12) Fulfilling the role that Jehovah assigns to parents and children also calls for cooperation.

Family Worship

Barry and Heidi have five children. They find that working together to have the family Bible study helps them to make progress. Barry explains: “For the family study, I give the children small assignments from time to time. I may ask them to prepare some comments based on articles in Awake! We also have practice sessions for field service so that each child is prepared with a presentation.” Heidi adds: “All of us have a list with spiritual goals we want to meet, and we review these periodically during the family study to see what progress we are making.” This couple also finds that having regular nights without television gives the entire family an opportunity to do some quiet reading.

Congregation Meetings

Mike and Denise raised four children. How did their family benefit from working together? Mike says: “At times, even the best-laid plans did not work out, but we found that cooperation helped us to get to the meetings on time.” Denise explains: “When the children were growing up, each one had chores to do. Kim, our daughter, helped with cooking and setting the table.” Their son Michael remembers: “Tuesday night we had a congregation meeting in our home. So we cleaned up the room, vacuumed the floor, and put the chairs out.” Matthew, another son, adds: “Dad made sure that he was home from work early on meeting nights to take the lead in getting us ready for the meeting.” What have been the results?

Worth All the Effort

Mike relates: “In 1987, Denise and I began serving as pioneers. At that time, three of our children were still at home. Two of them also became pioneers, and the others have worked on Bethel construction projects. An added joy for our family is that we have been able to help 40 different individuals to the point of dedication and baptism. We have also had the privilege of working as a family on construction projects, even abroad.”

Indeed, cooperating as a family is worth all the effort. Can you find additional ways that you can cooperate with one another in your family? You can be sure that having a spirit of cooperation will help your family to make further spiritual progress.

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Practice sessions promote progress in the field ministry