Welcome to Define Your Terms!
Define Your Terms is a multi-book study guide, school curriculum and conversation facilitator designed to dig deeper into the foundational concepts of courtship and marriage from a Biblical worldview. DYT is comprised of a resource book, Defining Terms, which is a compilation of Webster’s 1828 definitions pertinent to the discussions of Godly courtship and marriage, and work books; one for parents who are preparing their children for entering marriage, and one for “single” children who are desirous of implementing a Godly, Biblical approach to marriage in their own lives.
DYT will help both parents and children alike rediscover the harmony of the interwoven concepts that are the foundation of the word “marriage.” DYT will help strip away some of the confusion over the term “courtship” and help families determine how to implement the Biblical precepts found in Scripture.
The bigger the decision, the bigger and farther reaching the consequences. Besides a person’s eternal standing and earthly walk with the Lord, marriage is the most important decision anyone has to make. The path to and fulfillment of that decision will affect that person for the rest of his or her life and the lives of the generations that follow after them.
Our desire is to equip readers with a biblically sound, working understanding of courtship and marriage terms that will equip them for furthering God’s kingdom through their marriages.
The Concept Behind DYT
We desire to bring clarity, objectivity and understanding to these complicated and involved topics by going back to the “root” words and usages of common courtship and marriage terminology.
We would suggest that words are like trees. Each word is the trunk of the tree with root words underneath, anchoring the word in solid meaning, and with many defining words, far reaching limbs, branches, and leaves that amplify the meaning of the word and produce the fruit of the tree.
Sometimes words are like trees in that it can be hard “to see the forest from the trees.” Where there is an abundance of words, confusion can quickly follow.
The soil of our culture has become depleted of the nutrients of Biblical teaching and moral character. The roots of our trees (language, marriage, family – every aspect of life) have been rotting way, leaving the trees barren of good fruits and prone to fall at the slightest wind. Our language has devolved into jive talk, divorce rates have soured, children are torn between two homes, and the Church becomes more impotent every day. These are the fruits of barren, depleted, tainted soil.
The topics of courtship and marriage are complicated subjects with many far reaching implications. To have a strong fruitful tree (God honoring, constructive language, conversations, marriages, families, churches and culture) we need to amend the soil our roots are planted in by recapturing the true meaning of God given language and the terms that we use.
It’s time to bring the “trees” into focus and restore them to health and fruitfulness.