The family is God’s design for human development. Much of who you are, the development of your personality, and what you become, comes directly from the family in which you were raised. It is also God’s design that family be the place where each person is taught who and whose they are, a spiritual and moral being created in the image of God under God’s love, care, and moral boundaries.

Read Genesis 2:7, 15-17.

• How did your family help develop you into what you are today? What is good and what needs some improvement?


• Do you regularly recognize and respect the image of God in people around you? Why or why not?

Read Genesis 2:18-25. Not only has God created you for community, but close community or soul-to-soul intimacy with others. Intimacy however, is not flowers and a romantic dinner followed by physical contact. Intimacy is deep relationship that demonstrates the love and acceptance of God, helping each other fully discover who you are and who God created you to be. It is in that kind of relationship that you are truly able to marry another by leaving, uniting and becoming one flesh with another person, being emotionally mature, committed, vulnerable and unashamed in the eyes of a spouse.

• How is your current Christian community shaping you today to be in healthy relationships?


• Name the people in your life with whom you have a deep soul-to-soul relationship. What do you think makes it soul-to-soul?


• Which has been easiest for you in your relationships: maturity, commitment, or vulnerability? Which needs the most improvement?

Read I Corinthians 6:15-16. The consequence of sin, however, has made it difficult to fully embrace this God designed intimacy and our culture has reduced sex from soul-to-soul commitment to a skin-to-skin affair. Not only does this cause isolation, loneliness, and shame, but keeps you from reaching your God created desire for acceptance, commitment, love and purpose.

• Why do you think our culture is drawn to shallow skin-to-skin relationships?


• Name a time you really felt isolated from those you love.

Read I John 1:8-9. One of the first steps to real intimacy is to accept and recognize your brokenness in this area and to repent and accept God’s forgiveness and love. The second thing is to begin cultivating intimacy by preparing for it, protecting it when married, and nurturing it in all relationships.

• How do you currently cultivate proper soul-to-soul intimacy?


• How do you need to better prepare or protect the intimacy with your spouse/future spouse?


• What is your next step in living out God’s design for intimacy?