A Faithful Foundation
Bible Verse
Tell them to your children over and over again. Talk about them all the time, whether you're at home or walking along the road or going to bed at night, or getting up in the morning. (CEV) Deuteronomy 6:7
Psalm 78: 3-7. These are things we learned from our ancestors, and we will tell them to the next generation. We won't keep secret the glorious deeds and the mighty miracles of the Lord. God gave his Law to Jacob's descendants, the people of Israel. And he told our ancestors to teach their children, so that each new generation would know his Law and tell it to the next. Then they would trust God and obey his teachings, without forgetting anything God had done.
It is difficult being a parent. If you are like me, there are many things that you feel you got wrong in raising your children. We make so many little decisions in the spur of the moment, like when to let a child be angry, when to have supper (before or after a soccer game), when to send the children to bed, and when to let your child figure something out on their own. There are also the big decisions. Should we move? What is our discipline strategy? Where do we send the kids to school? These decisions are not of life and death importance, but they do have an impact. They make being a parent so tricky, which may be why building a family that blesses others is hard.
So what can you do? For me, it is about faithfulness. First, I remind myself that God is faithful. I hold on tightly to Psalm 103:17-18 which says, “But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children—with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.” Amid all these decisions, God is faithful and holds me and my family in the palm of his hand. Nothing I do or don’t do can take his faithfulness away from me. God’s faithfulness extends to my family life.
Second, I don’t think we should underestimate the importance of faithfulness to our family life. Being faithful in our home can mean different things. The faithfulness of routines like having supper together, committing to a church, and the location of the kitchen utensils. The faithfulness of time like soccer games, family board games, and before and after school routines. The faithfulness of people like grandparents, aunts and uncles, and good family friends. Demonstrating faithfulness in these things provides a foundation of trust for your family. Faithfulness in your little and big decisions reminds your family that no matter what, you are present and, in so doing, reminds them of God’s faithfulness, which is so much more present than our own. Psalm 78:7 says, "Then your children would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.”
Finally, faithfulness can give your family the courage to follow Jesus. When your family is faithful, you can serve a faithful God together. It can give you the mental strength to reach out into a broken world and heal small parts of it. You are extending God’s faithfulness into the world to remind the world through your faithfulness of a God who loves and cares continually.
Want to do a deep dive? Check out Family Fire's article Guidelines for Establishing a Godly Home.
Albert Kok
Albert Kok spends a lot of time wondering in God´s creation on the Bruce Trail with his wife and four children. He is a grade 8 teacher and likes to encourage his students to wonder as well.
