The day I stepped one， my college campus for the first<br >time， I was anticipating :!meeting gals who were tops-<br >maybe even one I might ~ar~， ~ someday. I never dreamed<br >then of the tremendous wife atad family God would give me.<br > When Jeannie and I were married， we had some principles<br >we thought would carry us through. The challenge of marriage<br >and raising children seemed staggering at times， but we<br >believed we had commitments which could make the differ-<br >ence between success and failure. To begin with， we were<br >married for life- we would never threaten divorce， not<br >even in joking~ We would be transparent and talk out our<br >differences as they happened. We would continue to treat<br >each other as we did when we were dating. (I still open<br >the car door for her.)<br > Our children， we believed， were gifts， and God expected<br >us to exercise stewardship over them. Our end objective<br >was that these children should be able to function in life<br >as total and whole individuals， able to face life as indepen-<br >dent， fulfilled people~<br > In this book we share the reflections， ideas， and struggles<br >of a real family. We have our days， just like you do. When<br >we held those little people in our arms， we determined we<br >didn t want them just to grow up， like "Topsy." We wanted<br >to establish principles for them and a plan by which we<br >could guide their development~<br > Where would we start? We began by asking ourselves<br >some questions: "What do we want our children to be like<br >when they are eighteen and on their own? How will they<br >conduct themselves when we re not around? How will they<br >handle tough issues without our input?" Those were hard<br >questions to answer. It is now more than twenty-five years<br >since I set foot on that college campus， and the "girl of<br >my dreams" is the girl of my dreams. My "little people"<br >are now in college.<br ><br >