Starting at Home
…. that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Deuteronomy 6:2
“It has to start at home.” Teachers have said this for years. More and more I am hearing it in Christian circles. Good discipline and a Christian worldview will only come from parents. Nothing is going to change until we get back to pleasing God.
Today I turned on the radio to hear a conversation about how politics is not going to save our nation from the cultural and moral decline that we have seen over recent years. A man, speaking from a Christian perspective, said that “it has to start at home.” He went on to make the point that if parents are not living a lifestyle that points their children to the Lord, and if they refuse to teach the Bible as a part of family life, then we are destined to watch the decline keep on going downhill. The next generation does not have a firm grasp on what is right and what is wrong in God’s eyes.
At a Mid-Atlantic Reformation Society meeting this week, Joel Saint spoke on the topic of Prophecy. One of his points was that prophecy should move us to action. When we read the prophets, they were constantly seeking justice – for God and for the oppressed. We read it and say, “Wow, look at how zealous these guys were for God.” They were willing to call someone on their unrighteous behavior. John the Baptist lost his life after he corrected King Herod for taking his brother’s wife. Should we be following their examples?
Some would say it is our responsibility to follow Jesus, not the Prophets. Well, wasn’t He pretty hard on evil doers? He called the Pharisees out on their sin again and again, He even called them a “Brood of Vipers” (Matthew 12:34). He very tactfully talked to the woman at the well, but He spoke clearly about her sin. (John 4)
Even in our own families we don’t want to compare the lives of our family members to the scriptures and talk to someone about wrong doing. We have come to the conclusion that it’s none of our business, or it’s nosey, or intrusive. “Who am I to criticize?” is something I often hear.
Well, you’re the mom or the daughter or the aunt or the niece! God has given us family as His plan for the structure of society. As it has broken down the society has broken down. If we want it back, we have to start at home. If Mom and Dad are not committed to their marriage and children, we certainly won’t see it in the next generation. If they won’t correct a child’s thinking or punish them for sin, who will?
How important is your marriage? Is your husband your priority? Do your children understand the important place that God has given to the family in society? How about the value you place, as an example, on the generation before you and the one that will follow? Are Christian children growing up with the example of following Jesus Christ in faith and God’s Word as their guide to living an abundant and blessed life? Do they even know that faith and obedience are the way to an abundant life?
Many of our youth are walking away from the church when they leave home. They have no real commitment to it or to the Lord. Why is that? Where have we lost the teaching of the fear of the Lord talked about in Deuteronomy 6 (at the top)? Parents have not made the Lord the most important thing in their lives and so their children don’t either. Friends, athletics, and academics have become more important in families than the Bible, than practicing their faith, and than the priority of fearing the Lord.
Can we start at home? I am blessed to have the opportunity to start over with grandchildren and try to get my new role with them right before the Lord. If you have children at home you still have opportunity, they want your attention, they want your values, and I pray, because of that, they will want your God.