Household

"If we are going to live by the Word in our homes, we can't use the Bible as a jumping-off point; it must be our law, our guide, our model, and our source. We must submit ourselves to its teaching from pillar to post. And that includes the way we teach our children." Dr. Voddie Baucham, Family Driven Faith.

According to the 2010 U.S. Census Data, almost 70 percent of children in the United States live in a nuclear family unit setting. A nuclear family is the traditional family structure; this family type consists of a Father and Mother and at least two children. For many decades the nuclear family was long held as the preferred way to raise children. There is proof that children in a nuclear family receive strength and stability from the two-parent structure. Generally, those children have more opportunities due to the financial ease of two adults in the household. Ideally, within a nuclear family, there are shared values, responsibilities, unconditional love, healthy attachment patterns, and an environment that supports growth and learning.

Our focus will be on today's family and the continued need for a gospel-centered household during the next sermon series. We're going to be looking at how family members relate to one another in a biblically functioning home. When every household member chooses to live in a relationship with one another in the way God intended, a gospel-centered family emerges. When a gospel-centered family inhabits a home, there's less tension and more laughter, less independence and more interaction, less instability and unwavering stability, and also fewer rules and more freedom.

This series intends to help Christian parents/caregivers/grandparents/aunts/uncles shape their children to be kingdom agents. The Christian community can not afford to lose our young people. The series is not just a series about how to keep your child in church. Let us together use read scripture to enlighten all of us on how to model and teach a lifestyle of being kingdom-focused in our home.

I know this may sound radical, but I'm suggesting that all Christian young people should have the conviction that they are to be missionaries. Their primary goal is to use their gifts and resources to advance God's kingdom so that every tribe, nation, and people group has the opportunity to respond to their rightful king. The family that lives in an atmosphere of love and truth that reads the Word of God and that prays together will have an easier time discovering God's will and pleasing the Lord. 

So I ask, "How are you spending the time you have with the child that is a part of your household family?" There is indeed truth to the statement, "Don't blink, or you will the most important years of your child's life."