Bound Together in Mutual Faith and Love
A mama wrote a sweet email one day in response to a recent post. She said:
. . . oftentimes at breakfast, we will linger at the table and I will tell [our children] about some of the events and people from my childhood. They love it, and I feel like that binds everything together.
These two sentences describe some of the sweetest blessings of homeschooling:
- Meals shared
- Time to linger
- Children hearing the heart of their mother
- Strong family roots
- Traditions that bind a family together
The greatest binding force in a family is mutual faith in and love for our Savior. In the almost 50 years of our marriage, Ray and I have stood to sing “Blest Be the Tie” with our brothers and sisters in Christ again and again with tears in our eyes.
In addition to unity in Christ, Christian parents long for each member of their family to be bound together in that mutual faith and love.
John Fawcett wrote “Blest Be the Tie” in 1782. He was a minister in England who had come to faith in Jesus through the ministry of the great evangelist George Whitefield. As you read these words, pray that God makes them true for your family. Praise God that, as you go through this homeschool day, you can take action to encourage your children to live these words.
Blest be the tie that binds
our hearts in Christian love;
the fellowship of kindred minds
is like to that above.
Before our Father’s throne
we pour our ardent prayers;
our fears, our hopes, our aims are one,
our comforts and our cares.
We share our mutual woes,
our mutual burdens bear,
and often for each other flows
the sympathizing tear.
When we asunder part,
it gives us inward pain;
but we shall still be joined in heart,
and hope to meet again.
This glorious hope revives
our courage by the way;
while each in expectation lives
and waits to see the day.
From sorrow, toil, and pain,
and sin, we shall be free;
and perfect love and friendship reign
through all eternity.
These words that Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus teach us how to live in unity today. Today’s unity builds a foundation for the unity we desire for all our family’s tomorrows.
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord,
implore you to walk in a manner worthy
of the calling with which you have been called,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
showing tolerance for one another in love,
being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace.
Ephesians 4:1-3