I live with an imperfect family.
Just like yours. But mine is a little bit different.
When I was a kid, I always thought
my family is like a factory that would supply and could just give me everything
that I need, and even the things that I don’t actually need. Because once upon
my lifetime, I wished I could have everything. For some reasons, my family is
not like that. I grew up wishing for things that I never had.
My family is on the average level.
Let’s face it; whenever I want something, no matter how small the price I have
to pay for it, I have to save for it for a long time just to get my hands to
it. There are even instances that your need is too big and you need to put your
game face on just to provide for yourself. Talking about school, that every-month
white paper bill you have to pay after a very long tiring day of Nursing
stuffs, all you got is your faith that God will provide for it. Those cravings
of the out-of-this-planet-priced food you want to taste, “you just can’t eat
anything you want” I always tell myself. You see, my family could not give me
anything I want but I love my family. They don’t tell you every day that they
love you, they don’t hug you nor cry with you when you’re feeling a little bit
down on a pit, but I love them and I am
grateful I have them to call my family. And I could really say I have been
living my whole life obeying them, always trying my best not to hurt them or
disappoint them. First, because they are my family and God gave them to me.
Second, because they are the ones who stayed after all my failures and faults.
Third, they are the first people who showed me what submission and sacrifice
looks like. Finally, they always remind me how faithful God is over our lives.
That He will continue to provide, and will continue to sustain us.
If you are in a family who don’t
even ask each other “how’s school?” or “How was your day?”, God is calling you
to love and to respect them. If you’re in a broken family, God has His reasons on
your ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ and sometimes, it’s not for us to understand because God’s
thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways are too great to understand (Isaiah 55:8-9). But still, God tells you
to obey and honor them. If you’re in a family like mine, do everything you
could to keep your hearts together and never do anything that sows discord in
your family. And if you feel like you are in an “almost perfect” family, that
you can’t thank God enough for giving you such a wonderful family, all the more
you should do these things. We all live differently, and it’s all because we
have different backgrounds and different families. But these differences won’t
serve as an excuse to neglect what God has been reminding us every now and
then; “Honor your family.” God makes no conditions and exemptions. If He says
so, we will do it.
After all, when everyone leaves,
and when it’s time for your friends to go, all will be gone, except your family.
They will be all that’s left. Family is something that no pain, no brokenness,
not even debt should separate, because it is God who brought them together (Mark 10:9). And it is the same God who
brought your family together. Your family is your first Ministry. That reason
is more than enough.
PROVERBS 6:16-23 (NLT)
There are six things the Lord hates – no,
seven things he detests:
Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that
kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false
witness who pours out lies, a
person who sows discord in a family.
My son, obey your
father’s commands, and don’t neglect your mother’s instruction. Keep their
words always in your heart. Tie them around your neck.
When you walk,
their counsel will lead you. When you sleep, they will protect you. When you
wake up, they will advise you.
For their command
is a lamp and their instruction a light; their corrective discipline is the way
to life.
