Here are some good posts on the family:
Why Satan Hates Your Family – Tim Challies
10 Principles for Christian Husbands and Fathers – Jason Helopoulos
Making Jesus Central in Your Family’s Life – Jamie Brown
Tag: Family
Family Collection
Here are some good posts on parenting:
Parenting Well in a Digital World – Tim Challies
Even at the best of times there is nothing simple about raising children. But throw in a million new technologies—new devices and social networks and apps—and things get far more complicated still. This is every parent’s challenge today.
I Pray This for My Children – Gregory Harris
Part of my answer to those who asked me about raising our children would be that we repeatedly prayed for them….Here is what I prayed (and still pray) for my children….
The Most Important Thing My Parents Did – Tim Challies
Here is one thing I learned from my parents: Nothing can take the place of simply living as a Christian in view of my children.
Family Collection
Here are some good posts for parents on teaching the Bible to your children:
How to Soak the Next Generation in God’s Word – Jani Ortlund
5 Simple Ways to Teach Your Kids Theology – Aaron Earls
Helping Children Benefit from the Sermon – Erik Raymond
Teach Your Child to Have Devotions – Ryan Higginbottom
Family Collection
Here are some good posts on the family:
Marriage on the Edge of Eternity – Francis Chan
(It might be time to rethink our focus…)
10 Ways to Exercise Christlike Headship – Owen Strachan
(It may not be what you think…)
5 Reasons We Eat Together as a Family – Tim Challies
(Some good reasons for an important family practice…)
Honoring Your Parents Isn’t Only For Young Children
The fifth commandment calls us to honor our father and mother. We often think of this command in connection with young children obeying their parents, and yet it has application to adults as well.
We honor our parents when we show them respect. We must show them respect in our attitude, words, and actions towards them. We must show them respect in our words about them as we speak to others. True honor will respect.
We honor our parents when we live uprightly. Do our lives bring honor or dishonor to our parents’ reputation? Do our actions cause the family name to be held with respect or disdain? Are we children who fill our parents’ hearts with joy or sorrow? True honor will live uprightly.
We honor our parents when we remember them. Too many parents are never visited, never called, never written to. They are forgotten and ignored. But true honor will remember.
We honor our parents when we care for them. As they age, they may need help with various things they were once able to do on their own. They may need help with something their spouse used to do who has passed on. They may need our time. They may need some financial support. They may just need someone to listen, to be there. True honor will care.
So how well are we living out this command? How do we need to grow today?
Ministry Monday
Here are some helpful posts for a pastor’s relationship with his family. The last two are actually short video discussions featuring Kent Hughes, Voddie Baucham, and Joshua Harris.
Pastoring Your Family – Jason Helopoulos
Good Pastor? Bad Parent? – Gospel Coalition
What’s the Best Thing You Did for Your Kids? – Gospel Coalition
Family Focus
Here are some important and really helpful posts for parents:
18 Things I Will Not Regret Doing With My Children – Tim Challies
Parents, Require Obedience of Your Children – John Piper (DG)
Is Your Child a Christian? – Brian Croft (GC)
How to Guard Sabbath for Your Children – Jen Wilkin (GC)
Family: Love or Disintegration?
We see the disintegration of the family all around us: divorcing couples, rebellious children, absent fathers, abusive parents, siblings who haven’t spoken to each other in years. As we look around, things are not what they should be.
And we all contribute to the disintegration of God’s design for the family. We do it with our words when they are unkind, hurtful, mean, and cutting. We do it with our attitudes when they are angry, bitter, resentful, or grumpy.
At the end of all this disintegration is simply a failure to love. We are too often selfish people living as though it is all about us. But God calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves. And our closest neighbors are our own families. We need to truly love our families, and this love must be:
- Other-centered – Jesus came not to be served, but to serve (Matthew 20:28). And we are to look not only to our own interests, but to the interests of others (Philippians 2:4). And this includes our families. We need to look to the needs of our families instead of focusing on ourselves. We need to go beyond feeling (because sometimes we won’t feel like loving), and choose to love even when it is hard. Our love for our families must be other-centered.
- Faithful – Jesus came and loved his disciples until the very end (John 13:1). True love never ends (I Corinthians 13:8). Our love for our families must be faithful; it must be lasting. Husband for wife, wife for husband, parents for children, children for parents. Our love for our families must be faithful.
- Sacrificial – Jesus loved us so much he sacrificed himself for our us, and we are to have that same love for others (Ephesians 5:2). That means we must be willing to sacrifice our wants, our time, our agendas, our hopes, our dreams for the good of our families. Our love for our families must be sacrificial.
In the midst of all the disintegration, it is this other-centered, faithful, sacrificial love that will bind our families together.
Are you showing this kind of love for your family?
Passion Points
I’m preaching on love in the family tomorrow, so here are some good posts on family love:
22 Descriptions of Marital Love – Paul Tripp (via R. W. Glenn)
1. Love is being willing to have your life complicated by the needs and struggles of your husband or wife without impatience or anger.
2. Love is actively fighting the temptation to be critical and judgmental toward your spouse, while looking for ways to encourage and praise.
Leading in Love – Wayne Grudem (via Tim Challies)
Headship doesn’t mean selfishness. It means being willing to give of yourself for your wife and care for her as well.
Christian Husband’s Only Option: Love Your Wife – Jason Helopoulis
Every Christian husband knows that in Ephesians 5 the husband is exhorted to love his wife as Christ loved the Church. What many of us need to hear, especially in Western modern culture, is that an aspect of Christ’s love for the Church is that it endures. Christian husbands must take note that Christ’s love for the Church is not momentary or even for a season. It is a love that continues. It is steadfast and true. And these qualities are to mark a husband’s love for his wife. There is no other option.
When I Don’t Feel Love for My Spouse – Steve Cornell (via Gospel Coalition)
A woman once told me that she planned to leave her husband because she “just didn’t love him anymore.” I asked her to change the way she worded what she planned to do so that her decision could be understood accurately. I asked her to say it this way: “I am choosing to no longer value my husband and to break my commitment to remain faithful to him.”
If you are married, I hope these posts will help to strengthen your marriage. And as always, have a great Lord’s Day worshiping our Savior who loved his church and gave himself up for her.
Family Quotes To Ponder
The joy of marriage: To be loved well and known deeply by one
is far more fulfilling than being adored by many and truly known by none.
– Gary Thomas
How soon marriage counseling sessions would end
if husbands and wives were competing in thoughtful self-denial.
— Walter Chantry
Some say, “I can’t love my spouse because he/she is so different than me.”
Then how will you ever love God? Is He just like you?
– Gary Thomas
Begin early to teach, for children begin early to sin.
— C.H. Spurgeon
Brian J. Mikul 