Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. – Colossians 3v18-21
For a pastor I don’t have a large library. My books are numbered in the hundreds instead of the thousands or tens of thousands. As I looked today though I found out that ever I have 37 books on the family. I am sure that there are several hundred Christian books on the family available. Family seminars are very popular.
These are, depending in the source, basically good things. The word of God makes it clear that those who have experience in spiritual matters should teach and help those who don’t. There is plenty of wisdom to be gathered from the experience of others. Books I have read and seminars I have attended were helpful in our child rearing years.
Saying that, if we could just get a few simple concepts down, and everyone in the family would do their part, our problems would be solved.
Wives submit
Husbands love
Children obey
Dads don’t provoke
I realise that the passage goes on to talk about teaching, but I want to hold that for a while.
This little list really nails, because I think any one of us, no matter what our family role, can immediately see where we fail. We husbands and dads, maybe because we are so stubborn and sure of us selves, get two requirements. Just in case we say, “Yeah, I love my wife” (Like Christ loved the church?), we are told – ‘Don’t provoke your children so they don’t get discouraged.
All those books and resources are great tools, but maybe we should at least give a look at the basic instructions.
No comments:
Post a Comment