God's Plan For The Family

How can we build better families? How can we strengthen the foundation of a society?

As politicians campaign for office, it seems as if every one of them is trying to help the American family. Some want to give tax breaks. Others believe the offer financial help is the best way to attract votes. Still others look to instill better values. The one common thread that connects all these efforts is; the family needs help. Whether the politician is Democrat or Republican, the one thing they will agree on is the need to bolster the American family. Politicians may not agree as to exactly where the family is hurting or how to do this, but they do agree that families are hurting. They know that many families are disintegrating. They know that our society (or any society) is only as strong as its families.

Yet, very few turn to the real source of family values. To rebuild or strengthen the family, it is absolutely necessary that people turn to the One who created the family in the first place. It was God who brought Adam and Eve together (Gen. 2:22-25) making them "one flesh". It was God who commanded them to "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth" (Gen. 1:28). God established the family. God ordained that families would be the backbone of any and all societies. So, what is God's plan for your family and mine?

We hear a great deal today about the need for values. Many turn to schools or government institutions to try to teach children and adults about right and wrong. But these values are taught best and most powerfully in the home. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), that it may be well with that you may live long on the earth. And fathers, do not provoke your children to anger; them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord" (Eph. 6:1-4). Paul tells us that values are learned at home.

Parents are to admonish and nurture their children. They are to instill a sense of honor and respect for parents. Children are to be obedient to parents and are to learn to respect them. These are the very values that seem to be missing in society: honor, respect, obedience, nurturing. If families respond to God's plan by living this way, our society would undergo a profound change from selfish violence, to selfless respect for others.

These values are passed to children in subtle ways. "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up" (Deut. 6:4-7). As Moses restated the law, he explained the process that instills values. It begins with the realization that God is, that He is our God and that He commands our lives. These facts should not be wrapped up in sermons, but in a lifestyle that speaks of God, thinks about God, and talks about God.

Moses even gives ideas about how to do this. He suggests talking about God in informal settings such as walking, eating, getting out of bed or going to bed. Those parents who include God at meals by praying are accomplishing much in the way of instilling values. Those parents who pray with their children before bedtime are setting the example children need in order to learn good values.

Finally, realize that these values are more modeled than taught. Children learn much more by example than by lectures or sermons. Taking your children to church is important. But if the home life is a poor example of faith, then all the lessons in the world, taught by all the best teachers, will fall on deaf ears. What takes place in your home will set in concrete the values your children adopt. Throughout Paul's discussion of marriage and childrearing (Eph. 5:21-6:4), he constantly refers to an atmosphere in which family members and protected. So a husband will not be threatened by a wife who submits (Eph. 5:22). So a wife will not be afraid of a husband who dies to self for his wife (Eph. 5:25) or who treats his wife as his own body (Eph. 5:28-29). So parents will not be pressured by kids who honor them (Eph 6:1) and children will not be angered by parents who nurture (Eph. 6:4). A family is to be a group of people who make it safe to live, to work, to worship, to succeed and to fail, without threat or intimidation or fear.

A home should be a place where everyone is safe from abuse. Our society takes spanking and too often turns it into pain, fear or worse. Society deals with that by making laws and taking steps to protect children. What child should need protection from a parent? Every child should feel safe to come home, even when that child is in trouble and deserves punishment. I never enjoyed facing my folks when I was in trouble. But I was never physically afraid of either of them. They would discipline, they love and they would forgive.

A wife should have that same sense of safety. When Adam met his bride they "were naked and were not ashamed" (Gen. 2:25). This first couple had no barriers between them. No matter how pretty or ugly she was, no matter how thin or obese, no matter how tall or short, she was accepted and loved by Adam. Eve returned this love to Adam, so that both could be completely transparent, physically and emotionally, and not be at risk. In too many homes today, spouses are afraid to be honest with each other. They are afraid of criticism, or of an explosion that would be even more pain than holding in the truth. Every marriage should be built on a foundation of transparency in which both partners can be honest even when wrong, and not be afraid harmed emotionally or physically.

But homes also need to be a safe place to risk. Paul tells husbands that Jesus died for the church, "that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish (Eph. 5:27). Jesus died to encourage the church to become all that God wanted us to be, pure and holy. In the same way, husbands should die to self that their wives can shine in all their glory and become all God wants them to be. Wives should do the same for husbands. Parents must do this for their kids.

A family should be a safe place to risk being more, knowing more, trying more, learning more. Some families are so critical, so harsh, so discouraging that no one ever succeeds. A family built on God's plan encourages its members to grow physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. I want my wife to be happy, to be satisfied and to accomplish all she can in life for herself, for us and for God. I want my kids to go farther, to do more, to know more, to love more than I have. I want my children to know God better and to serve Him better than I have. To do this they must risk new things, take chances that might not work just right. But a family should be a place in which that sort of risk can be taken.

Repeatedly in Ephesians 5:21-6:4 Paul gives the key to having a family based on God's plan. "Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord" (5:22). "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her" (5:24). "Children, obey your parents in the Lord" (Eph. 6:1). "Fathers... bring them up in the discipline and admonition of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4). The key to all family functioning is having God and Jesus at the center.

So wives submit, not because their particular prince charming deserves it, but because that is what Jesus wants. So husbands die to self, not because their particular bride is wonderful and perfect, but because Jesus wants it. So children obey parents, not because parents are always right or smarter, but because, in the Lord, that is what we are asked to do. Finally, parents are gentle and disciplining, not because their kids are perfect and deserve good parents, but because that is the will of God.

This means that the family is the ground for being Christians. It is at home that we learn about mercy, about grace, about righteousness, about faithfulness. It is at home that we learn about turning the other cheek, going the second mile and giving up our rights. And we do all this because it is God's will, not because the people in our homes deserve it. Too many families are built on the idea of "you go first." In God's plan it is always the believer who "goes first" by dying to self and submitting to the others.

To answer the questions that were asked at the beginning of part one, we can change homes by be aggressive in ministering to families as they learn the skills of modeling, transparency, and denial. Churches and believers can teach and practice these skills so that the world comes to us, not because we have good ideas, but because God's plan, put in action in our lives actually works!