Transcription
If you’re like me, you want to give your kids everything. And that comes with some limited obviously, but you want to provide them with the very best resources, the very best opportunities, the very best chances in life to succeed. You don’t like to see them cry, you don’t like to see them fail. You like to see them happy all the time.
But let me tell you one thing that you can’t do for your kids. And it’s kind of wrapped up in something that Moses said to the children of Israel. When he was talking about what it is that God wanted from his people and that was to love the Lord their God with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength.
Now we hear that verse sometimes or maybe you’ve seen that before at Hobby Lobby or Chick-fil-A and you see that and you think, “O yea, I’m supposed to do that, so I should try harder.” And we tell it to our kids and we tell them, “You should try harder.” But the reality is that is not an individual statement. That is a—attention nation of Israel you all need to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And do that by talking about it when you’re together and share that with one another and encourage one another with that idea.
In other words, it takes a village. You need other people to help build faith in your kids. And you can’t provide that for them on your own. This is why we are so big around Real Life about our family ministry, because we want to partner with you. We don’t see this as it’s just our job or it’s just your job, but it’s our job together in order to help your kids grow in the foundation of their faith.
Now your kids are going to make their our decisions. Your kids are gonna make some mistakes, just like you did, just like I did. But our goal is to provide them a foundation of faith, so that when they’re ready to make that decision of their own, they know what it means to love the Lord their God with all of their heart, all their soul, all the mind and all of their strength. And this is something us parents, as much as we want to do for our kids, we just can’t do alone.
Rusty, excellent as always and thanks! However, I’ve seen one major thing missing in our churches over the past several decades when it comes to marriage and family ministries. The “church,” instead of actually holding couples and parents/families accountable have simply substituted their “ministry/program” to “suffice” for honoring marriage and God’s design and order therein, very negatively affecting our marriages, families and churches (proof is in the pudding in most cases in our culture, including our church cultures) where adultery, porneia and related issues are prevalent and often hidden to keep the veneer of marriage/family ministry and the church looking nice!?! I believe the enemy loves it when we, even with great intentions, re-order God’s design. Marriage and family is where loving relationships are to start and then we can multiply them in His family, The Church! We have failed to show men, women and ultimately spouses and families what it means to truly love and lead intimately after the model of Christ in close relationships. The American Church has nearly perfected “loving from afar” without teaching, discipling and holding accountable, intimate agape love which begins in the home. Every single person, married and single, began as what God intended in the sexual act as a marriage. We’ve failed to honor this (Hebrews 13:4) throughout our culture (including many of our churches who, yes, agree with one man/one woman but do not hold their couples and especially leaders accountable, specifically when it comes to lust and porneia). One of the most significant Scriptures on true leadership ties and orders marriage and Christ’s Church together and today’s churches have largely ignored it to the great detriment of healthy relationships, marriages, homes and agape love flowing from them into His Church/Bride and out into a hurting world…1 Tim. 3:4-5. I felt compelled to respond and I pray it was by and in His Holy Spirit! Thanks for all you do and make it a great day in The Lord!