Building Strong Families: A Call to Action
The Foundation of Change
Corrupt government cannot be changed from the top down. Wicked leadership reveals rottenness in the root–the people. Change in a country begins with me–repentance and faithfulness–and then my family.
We’ve heard it so much it’s almost trite…”the family is the building block of society”. The problem is, we acknowledge it in word, but we don’t even begin to understand the WORK necessary to build a family that strong. We acknowledge it, but we don’t practice it.
The Importance of Focus
But it was the last line that held the secret for me…”And if you try to do much more, you’ll mess that up.” We’re trying to do a lot more, and there is no room for building families. We assume the family will grow itself without deliberate effort, and it won’t. And where there is no building–no maintenance, the family breaks.
How Do We Build the Family?
What does it mean, “build the family”? Strong families can hardly be built unless they are built on the truths of Scripture. It seems many profess Christianity with little evidence of its power in their lives. Strong families begin with the living power of God that transforms hearts, minds and lives.
Strengthening the Foundation of Marriage
Building the family starts with strengthening marriage, the foundation. That means deliberate, daily action to build each other up, prayerfully uniting together, fighting before the throne of Heaven for your children, and for protection from the enemy.
Discipling the Next Generation
It’s discipling children–not just living with them but showing them, in every circumstance what wisdom looks like, how we react to life, to sin, to pain, to challenges. Impressing on them that life has value because of our Creator. Refusing to let them be taught by a humanistic worldview that says otherwise.
Leading By Example
Leading them by example to glorify God in every area of life. Requiring obedience and honor because God requires it. Teaching them about His sovereignty, His promises and His faithfulness. Helping them build, layer upon layer, a foundation that will withstand any storm. It’s daily and constant. It can’t happen in the crevices of time. This, if we want to pass the torch of faithfulness to the next generation.
Nurturing Relationships
It’s nurturing relationships so they are tender and receptive to the truth and because strong relationships are foundational to healthy minds and emotions upon which building is so much more productive.
Setting Boundaries for Growth
Building the family is saying “no” to anything that robs us of time or energy that might prevent this intense, deliberate work. Building the family is remembering the metaphor of Nehemiah’s people building the wall. They were focused, with a hammer in one hand and a sword in the other.
The Urgency of Our Mission
Do you see we must build just like that? There is an enemy at large that would devour us, and if we drop our sword OR our hammer, for a moment, we become easy prey!
When the family frays, every institution above it follows.
A Call to Commitment
So instead of wringing our hands over the culture at large, let’s get about the task at home. Have you been distracted? Has your family been a side job for you? Building a family is an enormous commitment that we must be willing to make if we truly want things around us to change.
If you are tempted, as we all are periodically, to forget what you are doing at home, to wish you could just go shopping when you wanted, or have your nails done more often (or at all!), give yourself a pep talk and get back in the battle. Don’t get distracted by the temporal sirens that pull us in every direction, that whisper lies to us and make us forget…we are in a spiritual battle and it has been given to us to fight….not to fret about our nails.
Need more encouragement as a mom? Grab my devotional, When Motherhood Feels Too Hard, to turn your perspective upside down!