As I sat in the room where we gathered for our reunion, I listened to the families that comprise the family I belong to, I was interested to listen to the conversation as we caught up with one another. Conversations were cordial, but they usually centered around two topics: what have you been doing these days and tell me about your children, grandchildren and other family members.
I remember vividly a sermon I once heard on the strength of a father's hands. Hands so strong they could turn a bolt and nut without a wrench. Hands that could build. And yet hands so strong that they could tear down and put fear in hearts as they rose in anger.
I listened and talked of my own children, and I wondered with the theme of family what kind of families we had. Were they families that were welcoming and inviting? A place to retreat from the world and to be built up? OR, were they families where the outer world was more welcoming and we left home to get away from the hell that was home? I certainly saw both as a principal. The school could be a place where we added to what the home was developing, or we were the escape where the kids came for at least seven hours of peace.
"Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord," writes Paul. What kind of home do we provide?
Pray that we provide a God-pleasing household where his Word is prevalent, his love and our love between one another is present, and where we build one another up.
Hope Men's Ministry
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