I know a great Christian lady who almost always responds to the question, “How are you doing?” with these words “I am blessed and highly favored.” What an attitude. She believes it and lives it. Her home reflects it.
Rudy GrayIt comes as no surprise that when we look at our blessings, we see things very differently. As a pastor, I have often been tempted to take time away from family in order to do church work. That, thank God, has not happened too often, but sometimes it has occurred. Just this past week, my wife and I were talking about how God has blessed us. We are so grateful for our grown daughters who are all happily married today. We were blessed two weeks ago with our first grandchild. I am especially thankful for the times we can get together with our daughters and their husbands and now their growing families. We are especially blessed that they want to spend time with us.
John Trent shared the story of a pastor who was so busy in his new church plant that he was neglecting time with his family. One day he rushed home from a day at the church to quickly eat and go back to church for meetings. As he was leaving, his daughter asked him a question, “Daddy, next week can you visit your family?” That stunned him. Instead of becoming defensive, he sat down, talked with his family, cancelled his plans for the evening and stayed home. They started having a family night each week. This pastor said, “That night changed our family. I have thanked the Lord many times over for my daughter’s courage to speak up before I walked out the door that night.”
It takes time together to build a healthy marriage, a strong family, and Godly relationships. Any of us can be tempted and distracted by so many other good things. However, our family is our first stewardship and our greatest opportunity to really live the Christian life. If we can follow Christ at home, we can be a witness for Christ virtually anywhere.
Following Christ at home where people know us the best, is one of the greatest tests of our faith. Because we are imperfect beings, growing in love as a family also involves practicing forgiveness. Dr. Joe White heads a summer camp in Branson, Missouri where thousands of teenagers come each year. A few years ago he gave the campers a one-question survey, “What would you most like to hear from your parents?” The second highest response was “I love you.” The top response was, “I am sorry.”
The home is not a perfect place but it is the place where character is formed, values are learned, and reality is experienced. If we are blessed with a Christian home, we are blessed indeed. It takes work, but it is worth it. In a good and maturing Christian home we are not only blessed but we learn how to appreciate blessings and how to be a blessing to someone else.
To have a Christian home means we are blessed and highly favored.