The family: At the centre of God’s heart

Call To Prayer 

Title: The family: At the centre of God’s heart

Date: 25/07/2022 

By: Njuacha Hubert.  

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.  “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment accompanied by a promise, namely, “that it will go well with you and that you will live a long time on the earth.”  Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but raise them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Ephesians 6:1-4 

The family is the cell of the society. The more there are good families in a society the more the society is good in general. The family is the foundation, it is the anchor, the base for any person. What you are today is largely contributed directly or indirectly by your family. So, the importance of a good family cannot be overemphasised. Infact it is so important that Jesus the son of the most high God, needed to have a family. The angel appeared to Joseph to make sure he went ahead to marry Mary so that Jesus could have an earthly father; so that Mary could have a husband. (Mathew 1: 18-25).  

The number one responsibility of the parent is to nature their children and provide all their needs. What greater need is there than for your child to be saved. So, parents’ ought to be the number one pastors to their children. Directing them to Jesus who can save them in this life and beyond. Today, we rely so much on society (schools and church) to train our children that we forget it is first and foremost our responsibility. You are the one to teach your child to pray, to teach them scriptures, to teach them to read the bible for themselves, to teach them about their sexuality and right way to go about it. All these requires time to be spent with children. Children need your time as much as they need your money. Children need to be heard not just provided for. Everyone has a role to play in the family from the father to the mother to the elder brother to the child and so on. And it important that everyone plays his or her role without trying to substitute another’s role unless you can’t do otherwise. It is important to underline that children learn from your actions more than from your words. So, you must set the example for them to follow. It important to complement your children as well as criticise and strike a good balance. Please avoid showing favouritism and try to be just and fair and yes it matters a lot. The bible history is there for us to learn from and even our own experiences and those around us. Joseph’s brothers were so jealous they sold out their brother Joseph because of the outward favouritism shown by Jacob to Joseph. As children we must obey and honour parents so as to tap long life and an easy conduit through it. 

In conclusion, the family is at the very centre of God’s heart. God is very eager about it working right in the family because from there can you act right in the society.As the adage goes “charity begins at home”. At the same time, the devil is also focused on the family and of course tries to destroy it at every level, encouraging things like gay, “baby mama”, divorce, cohabitation and so on. Lastly , as our opening verse says, parents can also err toward their children. It doesn’t reduce you but brings your children closer if you can acknowledge your fault before them and apologise just as it is important for partners to learn to apologise to each other.

Prayer point: 

Let’s continue to always pray for our families. Let’s also pray for grace raise up children in the fear or way of the lord so that they would not easily depart from it in their adult age.