We are rapidly approaching Christmas day. Many gifts will exchange hands.
I want to stop and reflect on your spouse and children.
They’re Gifts from our Lord.
How are you treating your gifts? Are you grateful for them? Do you take care of them the way the Lord
wants you to take care of them?
You’ve been given a great gift and a great responsibility. You have been entrusted with lives. Entrusted from our Lord with them. How are you handling it?
Are you helping them seek their loving Creator? Are you helping them serve their God?
I can tell you that just in looking at my wife and children I know how much God loves me.
They’re gifts, loving gifts, and the number one thing you can do for our Lord is put Him at the head of the household. Don’t take anything for granted. We will be held accountable as the head and hearts of our families and what we did for Him.
Ephesians 5: 22-28-22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
There is 50% divorce rate in this country and no wife or husband living both by these scriptures are
getting divorced. There is no ME in these scriptures. Why can a wife submit to her husband with confidence? Because he is giving himself up just as Jesus gave Himself for the Church. That means selfish me goes out the door.
Ephesians 6:1-4- 1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” 4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the
training and instruction of the Lord.
What’s a family that’s hitting on all cylinders (at least for fallen humans)? The one that bases the Word of God as its guide.
Thank the Lord this season for your gifts and never take your duties lightly or loved ones for granted.
Bryan Vanshur
December 22, 2011 at 8:17 am
Patrick, I’m single (never married) so it may seem odd for me to comment on this blog. Please let me know if I’m off base in any way with my comment. I noticed that most people (Believers as well as non) focus on the submission verse for wives in a negative context. I know they see it as a subservient and slave-like attitude, which I’m sure is not what was intended. I usually look at the husband’s responsibility to “love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her”. I think that husbands have the biggest responsibility in the marriage relationship because of that one sentence. If you think about it, that means loving in a sacrificial way. It’s a heavy responsibility if you think about it. I probably sound like I’m discouraging marriage. Believe me, I’m not at all. I see as something to strive for and constantly improve. Am I on track with this line of thought? Thanks again for your blog and Merry Christmas! 🙂
bpiadmin
December 22, 2011 at 3:56 pm
You are correct. I believe the man needs to be a slave to Christ. A man that wants his wife to submit to him and then doesn’t want to submit to the Lord, is being hypocritical in his own way. Children need to obey their parents, however, that’s because the parents are obeying God. Countries, armies, work forces, families, all have to have a structure of leadership or they fail. The neat thing about the Lord is that the head and the heart under his system work hand and hand in a good marriage if done correctly. Both lead, but the head (and will be head accountable for being so) is the husband. Don’t get me wrong, if a man is submitting to the Lord and the wife is not obeying God, she will be held accountable later also.
Just another reason why it is so important for all to stay in the Word.