To bad we couldn’t pick the friends or spouse for our adult children, although I believe God is the better for this job. We can have a set of good qualities, such as being generous, honest, courageous and just to encourage and guide. We can influence important virtues of a Godly person or spouse. Paul instructs us to pursue a list of positive qualities: righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. These virtues influence one another to develop Christ-like attitudes and responses to our circumstances. Sometimes the best way to understand something is to look at what it is contrasted with.

All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered.

1 timothy 6:1