Awhile back, I read the following words from a man who was looking back on his life. His children were grown and out of the home, and he was thinking about the things he would have done differently. He wrote:
My family's all grown and the kids are all gone. But if I had to do it all over again, this is what I would do. I would love my wife more in front of my children. … I would listen more, even to the littlest child. I would be more honest about my own weaknesses, never pretending perfection. I would pray differently for my family; instead of focusing on them, I'd focus on me. I would do more things together with my children. I would encourage them more and bestow more praise. I would pay more attention to little things, like deeds and words of thoughtfulness. And then, finally, if I had to do it all over again, I would share God more intimately with my family; every ordinary thing that happened in every ordinary day, I would use to direct them to God.
When your life is over, when it is all said and done, there will be your family.
That's why men cannot, even for a moment, consider bailing out on the commitment they made to their wives on their wedding day and the commitment they've made to their children. We cannot turn our backs on them.
Tragically, so many men today are abandoning their families and chasing after something they often rationalize as a midlife crisis. It's the equivalent of deserting in the face of battle. Some, however, assert that families don't need a father anymore.
No, they do. They need both a mother and a father. Men, we must stand by the commitment that we've made to our wives and our children.
C.H. Spurgeon said, "A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you, and were helped by you, will remember you. So carve your name on hearts and not on marble."
When we spend time with our children, we're carving our name on their hearts.
This is what we need to consider in the apostle Paul's words to the Christians in Ephesus: "Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. … Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord" (Ephesians 6:1, 4 nlt).
Paul echoed the same principle in Colossians 3: "Children, always obey your parents, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not aggravate your children, or they will become discouraged" (verses 30–31 NLT).
Check out Greg Laurie's books and movies in the WND Superstore
Respect for parents is certainly something our culture has lost sight of. And it's worth noting that the Bible identifies this as one of the signs of the last days.
Paul wrote to Timothy, "You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred" (2 Timothy 3:2 NLT).
When we look at our culture today, we can see that the revolution of the 1960s unseated the traditional American family as the norm and offered the alternatives that we still see flourishing today. We see many of the ideas that were sown in the 1960s now being reaped in the 21st century.
Our secular culture is a monolith of rebellion against godly principles. Sitcoms routinely portray parents, especially fathers, as blithering idiots. Meanwhile, the children are all-knowing with their scripted little wisecracks, no doubt penned by adults who never really grew up themselves.
Hollywood has a way of glamorizing sin. They make it look good. We can sit through a film that blatantly contradicts values that we believe in and secretly find ourselves rooting for those things because the film has been done so well. The music swells at just the right moment, the shot is set up perfectly, and the actors deliver their lines with such authenticity.
But we have to be so careful about what we expose ourselves and our children to. And more than ever, we need to do our part as parents. In a society that has increasingly become morally relative, a society void of moral absolutes that people believe in, we need to come back to the Scriptures, which tell us what is right and wrong.
God has given us his commandments as a set of moral absolutes. King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, came to this conclusion: "Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone's duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad" (Ecclesiastes 12:13–14 NLT).
He was saying, "I've learned this in life with all the mistakes that I've made. I've come back to the truth of the commandments."
That is not to say that keeping the commandments will make us righteous before God, because ultimately, they drive us into the open arms of Jesus. At the same time, they're a moral grid for us to live by, telling us what is right and what is wrong.
In the Ten Commandments when God established the foundation for how we are to treat others, he began with the family: "Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you" (Exodus 20:12 NLT).
Any nation that will survive needs the family. That's why I am so concerned about the erosion of the family in our country today. As someone has pointed out, a family can survive without a nation, but a nation cannot survive without the family.
The family provides the strength of our nation today.
Learn about WND's effort to place the Ten Commandments on billboards across America.
The post Without the family, the nation falls appeared first on WND.
