Families

"Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse." (Mal 4:5-6)

The above scripture is one of many about the final days before the Lord returns.  In a time when the Spirit of the Lord is poured out upon His people there is this scripture about families.  Though other scriptures focus on saving and discipling the nations, we see that the Lord will also have us focus on those at home.  Before we can become spiritual fathers and mothers to others we must be physical fathers and mothers to our children.

Some ministries encourage laying our families down, and in fact, ignoring them so that we might devote more time and money to serving the ministry.  But from the scripture we find that the real blessing is in serving our families as well, and the curse is in neglecting to build a relationship with our loved ones.

Families that lack the affection of the parents end up feeling emotional and spiritual pain.  At times the parents offer the world to their children as a comfort.  It is a spiritual compromise that, though buying time for the parents to do ministry work, costs the children their purity towards God.

When our children lack our affections, the substitutes we give them become a representation of our love. An example is that, if we sit our children down in front of a movie because we don’t want to take time with them, they grow up thinking movies are a token of love.  But these tokens are not love, therefore they do not meet the need for love.  The children who are given tokens become more needy, and possibly demanding, because the world cannot meet their need. In their home, they also do not see the type of sacrificial love that Jesus gave.

Sacrifice.  It seems to be a word that, in our mind, may offer more reward if connected to ministry than to family.  I believe that the scripture Malachi wrote tells us that our family is our first ministry.  Since God is “turning” hearts, it is most assuredly a ministry of love.  This Christmas season let us find our heart’s focus on those the Lord put in our families; our children.  They do not need the world. They need our love.  Amen.