The SYMBIS Assessment PlanSample

Context: Expectations

What do you know about your grandparent’s marriage? Your great grandparent’s marriage? Of course you know plenty about your mom and dad’s relationship. After all, it was your model for marriage growing up. Whether it was happy or sad, or nearly non-existent, you observed it up close and personal.

All of us take something from the previous generation’s example of marriage into our own. It’s inevitable. We may even resist some aspect of our parent’s marriage and then find ourselves doing the very same thing. We psychologists call that an introject – it’s kind of like getting injected with ways of being from our family of origin. And this process can offer both good and bad character qualities. But make no mistake; we are all inextricably linked to our family’s lineage.

From generation to generation we are handed responsibilities and qualities that keep the customs going – whether we know it or not. So take a moment to explore what you’re apt to bring into your marriage from your bloodline. Simply talking about this “relational inheritance” will make it more conscious and shed light on your current conditions.

As you review the findings on the Expectation page of your SYMBIS Report, consider your family’s positive qualities as well as your family’s inevitable shortcomings. How are they likely to shape or impact your marriage? And more importantly, how can each of you, in spite of whatever expectations have been shaped by your family of origin, embody the “fruit of the spirit” in order to take the very best your families had to offer and allow them to be used by God in your relationship?

If you haven’t taken the SYMBIS Assessment, we hope you will. It’s truly one of the single most effective ways you can prepare for lifelong love together. Visit SYMBIS.com