“You are the light of the world – like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” (Matthew 5:14-16 NLT)
With rare exception, who you are in your home is who you are. If you’re unkind to your wife/husband, children, and whomever else might be a regular part of your home environment, you’re not a good person, at least not in a Biblical sense. If there is ANYPLACE our “light” for Jesus should shine, it should be in our home, in our relationships with our family.
Having served in youth ministry for many years, my heart would break when one of my “kids” would say in reference to one or both of their parents: “I sure wish they treated me at home like they do here at church.” Or “I wish they were like they are at church, at home.”
Sometimes it’s easy to wear the proverbial mask when we’re out but feel like we can just “be ourselves” when we enter the door of our home. And there’s truth to that, as long as there’s not a huge difference in the two. To seek to act like Jesus when away from home, then become the proverbial “devil” when we’re with our family is not only wrong, it’s also sinful.
Dr. Billy Graham said, “A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society.” Mothers, without question, play a vital role in the upbringing of their children, but the best results are had when mothers and fathers stay true to the Lord, to one another and to their children. In the best scenarios, it provides the safest, healthiest, and most stable environment in which to raise children.
Years ago, so the story goes, a greeting card company decided to make Mother’s Day cards available to the male inmates of a particular prison who wanted them. It was an overwhelming success, the card company having to supply more cards to meet the demands of the inmates. The response was so positive the prison decided to also offer Father’s Day cards to their inmates. There were no responses. Not one inmate wanted to send a card to their father.
Obviously, we can’t draw hard and fast conclusions based on something like that, but it’s at least safe to say those male prisoners had little or no respect for their fathers. I’m confident there are lots of reasons for those conclusions, but the verifiable point is, a father’s influence is a major factor in how children turn out.
To profess Jesus, yet not treat our children as the Bible instructs, is wrong and demands repentance. One of the primary ways we express love as a father is how we love our wives. Rearing godly children is a team effort, so, for a dad to love his children, yet ignore or demean his wife in front of his children, is wrong on all kinds of levels.
Loving others is fundamentally and foundationally a Christian virtue. How can we not make this a priority in our homes? Paul speaks of loving our wives sacrificially, but the whole of Jesus’ teaching emphasizes loving others as we love ourselves. Isn’t our goal to be like our Master, Jesus? No one was ever loved more by their Father and no one ever loved their Father more.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 