The Family

This is National Family Week. This is the sort of thing that should be on the TV all week promoting and supporting the families of the world. It seems to me there are only two kinds of families in the USA anymore, completely over the top involved in activities, and totally dysfunctional. I guess I shouldn’t be that critical, because I know there’s still a majority of solid family units that fall somewhere in the middle doing a wonderful job of nurturing the next generation into great leaders and defenders of truth and moral ethics. What I guess I’m trying to say, I see too many children today who have never been weaned and allowed to experience and deal with failure, while on the other hand there are children potty trained, weaned, and essentially left on their own to grow up into whoever, generally experiencing failure followed by more failure, with no guidance on how to avoid failure. Thursday, May 5th is National Prayer Day. Take time to pray for the family. Many misguided people are out to destroy the family and many children are suffering morally and ethically because of it. Friday, May 6th is Friendship Day. I hope you have a close friend and if you haven’t told them lately, thank them for being someone you can rely on and confide in. I’m getting down off my soapbox now.
Waylon Prendergast, 37, of Tampa, Florida, committed a spur-of-the-moment robbery on his way home from a late-night drinking session. A very inebriated Mr. Prendergast forced his way into the house through an open upstairs window, filling a suitcase with cash and valuables before setting the living room on fire to cover his tracks. He then made his escape out the back door, cutting across a few backyards to a street he recognized then headed for home, chuckling to himself. Then turning the corner onto his own street he discovered three fire engines outside his burning house. It was then he realized, that in his drunken state, he had in fact burglarized and ignited his own house. His only comment was, “I never realized I had so many valuable possessions.”
[Hebrews 11: 24-27] While we may never do anything that stupid, there are times when Christians need to stop and reflect, hopefully coming to the same conclusion that Mr. Prendergast did, “I had no idea I had so many valuable possessions.” From family and friends to material comforts, from our basic needs to the luxuries earlier generations never dreamed of, from the freedoms we enjoy to the jobs we hold, there is much we have been blessed with that we take for granted. Even beyond the physical blessings of life there is so much that God has given us through Jesus Christ. Paul wrote in the Ephesian letter 1: 3, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” The family is a part of God’s will, not only in this physical world, but also, as you study His word you’ll find the family is the backbone of the spiritual world. In verses 4 -6, God the Father is willing to adopt us as his sons, if we choose Jesus, through baptism, to become our brother. There are many “antichrist’s” in the world today (1 John 2: 18, 22 & 4: 1-3), trying to destroy the spiritual family also. The physical and spiritual family promote love, understanding, instruction, correction and survival. This week pray that those who seek to destroy the family are defeated. Take a moment this week to discover some valuable possessions, seen and unseen. “God forgive us for taking so much for granted.”