Building Good & Godly Families

Robert Jefferies

            Did you know that you can buy a gallon of milk for forty-nine cents? Did you know that you can purchase a dozen eggs for fifty-seven cents? Gasoline? You can buy a gallon of gas for about thirty-one cents. Where, when?—In 1960!

            Our country, including the family, has experienced dramatic changes over the past decades. The traditional family of the 1950s is practically extinct. The slower-paced, laid back life of yesterday is gone. Today, it is life in the fast lane. How do you build a good, godly family in such a changing culture?

CONSULT THE ARCHITECT

            Would a contractor begin construction on a skyscraper without first consulting the architect’s plans? Yet, many of us try to build something far more significant, our lives, our families, without checking the plans that God has drawn up for the project. The Master Architect has revealed His plan for the family:

Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 5:21-6:4).

ELIMINATE POTENTIAL PROBLEMS

            Godly families just don’t happen. Families who are influenced by high levels of immorality (drug and/or alcohol abuse, filthy language, pornography) are going to function poorly. Husbands and wives who are constantly fighting are going to function poorly as well. Remember the words of Paul,

Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth (Colossians 3:5-8).

Also, lack of affection between husbands and wives, and the children, can turn into potential problems as well. I can remember growing up in a home where my parents always kissed one another, and told each other “I love you” when they came home or were leaving home. As a child this made a lasting impact on me to see the kind of affection that is needed between a husband and wife from child’s a viewpoint.

LIVE DECISIVELY FOR GOD

            Living decisively means taking charge of our families and taking ownership of our responsibilities. Godly families happen by purpose and by planning. In the Old Testament, Joshua made a bold proclamation concerning his family, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).

Conclusion