a place of acceptance, love and affirmation. It produces security, self-worth
and confidence.
Many in our society do not come from such security. On one particular
Sunday when I ministered at the local jail, a newly incarcerated young
women in the circle wept uncontrollably as she spoke of her young child, less
than a year old. The child had been taken from her and her husband and was
in a foster home separated from the very parents that gave him life. We prayed
fervently for restoration and, within a few weeks, the father was able to receive
his child back. The mother waits for the court’s decision for her own restoration
to her child and husband. I hear the story over and over again—families torn
apart by drugs, alcohol and rebellion toward God.
The answer is clear -- we must focus on the family with the knowledge of the
Father’s love. God is
a family man. The
Trinity will always remain a mystery to
mankind, but it is an
expression of who God is
as a family in union. Into
this union man has been
invited to become part
of His family. When
Christ cried out from
the Cross, “My God,
My God, why have you
forsaken me,” the Son experienced total separation from His family. This pain
in separation is the manner of God’s great love and Fatherhood.
Having
paid the price, he said, you shall “Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark
12:29).
To experience separation and brokenness of relationships is to experience the
heart break of God and block the flow of His love. Building a family in the love
of God releases this flow. The gift of eternal life is first and foremost a river of
love between man and his God, man with his wife, and they as parents to their
children. This goal of oneness is the purpose for these instructions: “Write
these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever
you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time
you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night” (Deut. 6:6 The
Message).
God’s Truth Has Practical Applicability
A parent’s first responsibility is to acquaint his children with God’s Word. The
techniques parents use to teach God’s truth will vary but as parents are faithful
in their Christian walk, what children learn about God will put them in good
standing throughout their earthly lives, no matter what they do or where they
go. Parents are twenty-four hour testimonies. They are the heroes and the role
models of a child’s life. What parents portray of God’s love will determine the
course of the life and action of their offspring.