Home is Where the Heart Is- Serve Your Family- FRIDAY
Home is Where the Heart Is
by
Bryan Craig
FRIDAY- Serve Your Family
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...It's game 7 of the World Series, and your favorite team has a chance to change history. Unfortunately, you find out that your daughter needs help with a big school project due tomorrow.
...You have had a long, grueling day at the office, and you feel like "vegging out" on the couch. Your wife has some concerns that she wants to discuss with you at that very moment.
...You are working away at the office, but you look at the clock and it's 6:00 PM. It's quiet and peaceful and you feel like you can finally get some things done. One more email, one more spreadsheet, one more look at the ESPN website. Your wife and kids are waiting on Dad to get home for dinner.
...You find out that they scheduled your son's baseball tournament for the same weekend as the Men's Retreat you are helping lead. Do you lead the men or cheer on your son?
Men, we have opportunities every day to be Disciples of Christ in the way we treat our families. Jesus came and taught us how to be servant leaders. He, the King of the Universe, got on his knees and washed his disciples' grimy feet. He sacrificed His dignity, His reputation, His very life as a love offering for us. He taught His disciples that the secret to life was simple....Love God and love others. I believe the first people He intends for us to love is our families.
"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing of water through the word." Ephesians 5:25 NIV
"Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction o the Lord." Ephesians 6:4 NIV
Once, I heard someone say, Before we go out and try to live out our faith in the world, we need to test it out at Home. If it's not working well there, don't take that show on the road. We all love our families, but are we loving our families with our actions, with our time, with our presence.
In Paul's teaching about marriage above, I've always found in interesting that he doesn't instruct wives to love their husbands. It is because women are wired in such a way that they respond to a man's love. Once again, God puts the burden on men to lead. Similarly, children are wired to want the Father's love. They need the father's blessing. As we raise our children, we model God, the Father, for them by the way we treat them and love them. How many small groups have you sat through where people talked about their "Father Wounds?" I don't know about you, but I don't want that to be my legacy.
Brothers, God is raising up men like you and me to change this world and harvest souls for His Kingdom, but before we become ministers, before we become Elders, before we go on that mission trip, before we try to change the world...we need to pull in the Driveway and check on our families.