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Families

Agapé UK is strengthening relationships and promoting the importance of community and family life, to enhance the emotional and spiritual wellbeing of everyone in society.

Through our FamilyLife resources and events, we’re supporting people around the country to build flourishing relationships and strong marriages, and discover what it means to have a lasting relationship with Jesus.

Exploring your questions about home...

We’re all in relationships, with colleagues at work, friends, family members and a partner, if married. How we respond to those people will contribute to the quality of the relationships.

Someone once said that great relationships don’t happen by accident. They take effort. Another person said that love is spelled: T-I-M-E.

A thriving relationship will have honesty and openness at the heart of communication, which means feeling safe, trusting the person you’re with and helping them to trust you.  You could add love, respect, acceptance and support to the ingredients for a flourishing relationship. Good relationships also resolve disagreements in healthy ways, offering and receiving forgiveness.

But relationships are about mutuality more than particular behaviours. There is healthy interdependence so we are happy to give and to receive.

We can learn to build thriving relationships and many psychologists provide evidence-based principles for these. An example is Attachment Theory, which describes our need for intimate connection.

The Bible is clear that humans were created to be connected, well before the development of Attachment Theory. The first thing that was “not good” in the Creation order was for the man to be alone, and so God made a woman so that together they could fulfil each others need for intimacy.

The Bible also teaches that the foundation for thriving relationships is a thriving relationship with Jesus, which profoundly impacts our identity and behaviour. So if we want to build thriving relationships the best place to start is where we stand with Jesus and grow in our relationship with him.


Marriage has existed for thousands of years across all cultures and continents.  It is in a few modern, western societies where some people are questioning the value of marriage. This may in part be down to unhelpful Patriarchal models presented by some Religious teaching, and also a reaction against the hyperbole, expectations and expense of some weddings.

The Marriage Foundation champions research showing that marriage is good for you. Surveys also show that nearly eighty percent of young people still aspire to marriage.

The Bible teaches that marriage is part of God’s design for humans to be in a loving, trusting, faithful and committed relationship, where children, and their parents, can thrive.


Every relationship has it’s ups and down. It’s normal.

Sometimes a rough patch can go on for a long time, and that can be very difficult.

You may be tempted to walk away from a marriage, but it’s not an easy thing to do, whatever the media may want you to believe. There are deep emotional bonds and there will be pain, which can leave deep scars.

If you are experiencing abuse of any kind then seek help and support to make good choices so that you, and any children, stay safe. https://www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk/

If you’re struggling with your partner because of on-going problems in your relationship then it will be worth trying to turn those struggles around. They can be huge growth points for you individually and as a couple.

FamilyLife offer events and resources to help those of all faiths and none. We are a faith based charity and believe that God can and will help, because he loves us.


Got your own question?

Let us know! We’d love to help point you in the right direction in future content and resources.

Discover more

Living and Telling

Living & Telling is our flagship training resource, designed to encourage and inspire you to help people discover Jesus together. Now available to run with your group online, this 10-part, video-led training series is for churches and groups who want to learn how to get better at discussing faith naturally in conversation and throughout everyday life – and best of all, it’s FREE!

Toucan Together

The free Toucan app has been developed through the expertise of our FamilyLife team. They’ve taken their years of experience in strengthening relationships and created a unique digital tool, designed to help you build your relationship. A great relationship doesn’t happen by accident. We invest time and effort in our jobs, hobbies, health …and even cars! Why not invest time in the most important thing you have?

A Day Together

“It was as though the event had been arranged just for the two of us.”
Spending time as a couple is one of the most significant things you can do for your relationship. Our FamilyLife team know that it’s easy to let time with each other take second place to the endless list of things that ‘must get done’. This is why we invite you to attend a A Day Together seminar…