Family For a Lifetime
Family is God’s idea. In His perfect plan, every child is born into a family who loves him or her and then each of those family members loves and serves one another for the rest of their lives. What a perfect plan God gave us. How badly sin can mar it.
In God’s perfect plan:
- Husbands and wives love one another (Colossians 3:19; Titus 2:4).
- Mothers tenderly care for their children (1 Thessalonians 2:7).
- Fathers bring their children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).
- Family members provide for the physical needs of other family members (1 Timothy 5:8).
- Children honor their fathers and mothers for the rest of their lives (Ephesians 6:1-2).
- Children and grandchildren take care of their parents and grandparents (1 Timothy 5:4).
God uses the idea of family to explain spiritual truths. He tells us that He is our Father (Matthew 6:9). He calls us His children (1 John 3:2). Within the family of God, we are brothers and sisters to one another (James 2:15).
You cannot give your child a perfect family. You cannot follow God’s perfect plan every second of every day. His grace is sufficient. He can take your heroic efforts and your feeble ones and do amazing things with them.
And yet He does call us to follow. He does want us to try. So keep God’s perfect plan before your eyes. Keep it deep inside your heart. Give your children the comfort of family–for a lifetime.
“Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us?
Malachi 2:10, NASB
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us,
that we would be called children of God;
and such we are.
1 John 3:1b, NASB