“And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” (Ephesians 3:18-19 NLT)
Family is under attack in our modern world like never before. Why is Satan so intent on destroying the family as God designed it to be? What is his “end game?” What is he trying to accomplish that is so destructive to life as we have known it?
John Stonestreet of the Colson Center wrote: “Family is not merely a “name.” G.K. Chesterton called the family a “triangle of truisms,” with the three sides of father, mother, and child. “The love of man and woman is not an institution that can be abolished, or a contract that can be terminated,” he wrote. “It is something older than all institutions or contracts, and something that is certain to outlast them all.” It always requires one man and one woman to make a child, and civilizations always require the birth of new children to survive. While we can use whatever words we like to describe this triangle, we can’t take some other shape and call it a triangle. That would be like calling a daisy a rose and then expecting it to grow thorns.”
Family is God’s idea and He designed mankind male and female for a very specific purpose – to bear children. To “be fruitful and multiply.” But this process wasn’t to be simply a “mechanism” to populate the earth. God’s idea was for the family to be the seedbed of spiritual discovery by creating a loving environment where children could be instructed in how to know and love God.
The role of parents, then and now, isn’t simply to provide “things” for their children. Yes, of course, children need shelter, food, and a sense of security, but the most important “thing” they need is Jesus. They need a mom and dad who not only love each other intimately and conspicuously, but who love Jesus boldly and courageously.
God designed men and women uniquely and with specific qualities that would complement one another, providing the perfect environment in which to nurture, instruct, and love their children. However, effective parenting is contingent upon the creation of a setting in which love is not only explained but given visibility through the way moms and dads love one another.
How do we most effectively learn to love? Through God, who IS love, and by having a meaningful and personal relationship with Him made possible through the life, death, and resurrection of His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. As important and vital as words are, they pale in comparison to the value of a clear “picture” of God, lived out in the lives of a mom and dad who dearly love one another and who are both committed to walking faithfully with Jesus.
If Satan can drive wedges between parents, as he’s obviously doing very effectively in America, the “fallout” of broken homes is broken people, including broken children. Add to our brokenness the confusing and controversial issues of same sex “marriages” and gender dysphoria and you have a nation on the edge of extinction.
Stonestreet wrote: “to deliberately create family brokenness by pretending we can change the definition of family. Breaking our vows to our spouses, rejecting our responsibilities to our children or parents, or pursuing same-sex or non-monogamous relationships while expecting to find health and flourishing for ourselves and our children is futile.”
The one thing we most need in this world that is filled with brokenness is a Savior-Healer who not only knows who we are and why we feel as we do, He knows how to fix our brokenness and heal our bodies, minds, souls, and spirits.
If we’d only learn to trust Him!
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 