Feeding Your Family Spiritually

Transcription

1 Feeding Your Family Spiritually David D. Sellnow Northwestern Publishing House Milwaukee, Wisconsin

2 Cover image: Shutterstock Third printing, 1997 Second printing, 1997 Scripture quotations are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTER NATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise except for brief quotations in reviews, without prior permission from the publisher. Northwestern Publishing House 1250 N. 113th St., Milwaukee, WI by Northwestern Publishing House Published 2009 Printed in the United States of America ISBN

3 Contents The Spirit Is Life Modeling and Mood Setting Feed a Soul; Starve a Sinner Focus on Forgiveness

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5 chapter 1 The Spirit Is Life Introduction You can get parenting advice from magazines at the grocery store, and it always sounds so easy: Six Simple Steps to Peaceful Bedtimes... How to Have Happy Homework Sessions... Foolproof Fixes for Behavior Failures. I often wonder if any of those articles authors are real parents with real kids. The trouble with the magazine method of parenting is that it never gets at the heart of the child. Your child is more than body, mind, and emotions. Your child has a soul. There is sin in that soul deeply embedded, awful, and lethal. It maims and kills whatever is alive and good. But through Baptism s rebirth, there is new life in that soul too divine life that is wonderful and rejuvenated. The powerful good news of Jesus created this life, and the same gospel sustains this life eternally. No amount of parenting techniques or behavioral modification can remove sin from a family or give grace to a child. What is needed above all else is spiritual refreshment, gospel nourishment. This booklet is about feeding your family spiritually the most essential task of 1

6 every Christian household. It is done through gospel encouragement and an evangelical attitude. The outcome, we pray, will be spiritual families that are led by God s Spirit and full of life in Christ. Insufficient for the task When I was asked to write on this topic, I felt overwhelmed. Who am I to advise the world on having a spiritual household? My guess is that most of you feel a similar sense of inadequacy when it comes to your own role as spiritual leaders in your households. For by ourselves we are unable to produce any spiritual accomplishment, but by God s strength we can do all things (Philippians 4:13,19). The first key to your own and your family s spiritual health is to recognize your own insufficiency and come to rely wholly and fervently on God alone. 2 Segmented lives When we think of how to feed a family spiritually, the church and its resources most often come to mind. We want to give attention to worship and to the other spiritual growth opportunities we find there. But if the church alone is seen as the embodiment of spiritual life for your household, there may be a problem. Brandon s family went to church every Sunday. They sang the hymns, prayed, and listened to the sermons. Then they went home, had lunch, and went on to other things. Their daily lives revolved around work, school, sports, music, movies, and television. When Brandon turned 18 and went off to college, more things started squeezing his time: car maintenance, apartment rent, term papers, lab projects, friends, parties, and girls. Brandon felt cramped for time. He stopped going to church. It had never seemed like that big a part of his life anyway. Sundays were better spent catching up on sleep.

7 Brandon is not an isolated example; variations of his story occur among many college students, career professionals, and busy people of all kinds. They carry on the affairs of this life disconnected from their spiritual lives. Their existences are segmented and compartmentalized. Religion is one thing; work is another; recreation is something else. To be healthy as individuals and as families, we need to view the whole of our lives in the context of our Christian faith, with God s words always in mind in all that we do. Spiritual hydration The words of God are like the rain that comes down to moisten the soil, like water to be drunk by all who are thirsty (Isaiah 55:1,10). If we picture God s words as water, perhaps we will better understand why a constant flow is necessary if we are to survive and hopefully thrive. Try planting a garden in Arizona and then not water it regularly. Watch it wilt in the heat. What would your body do if you stopped drinking liquids or had only a sip every week or two? Dehydration would kill you. Football players have died at hot summer practices from sweating out more fluids than they were taking in. Similarly, you need the water of life God s Word coursing constantly through your spiritual system. You must stay spiritually hydrated to endure the stress each day brings to your soul. That doesn t mean muttering Bible verses under your breath or wearing the Ten Commandments in a locket on your forehead. (People have tried that without spiritual success!) What you need is an overall spiritual outlook on life, a point of view that keeps Christ in sight at all times. This will radically alter the way you go about your day-to-day business. For example, a young girl was struggling through a piano practice. She liked piano once she mastered a song and 3

8 could play it effortlessly, but fumed and banged on the keys when attempting a challenging new piece. I can t do it! she screamed. It s too hard! I hate piano! Her dad tried to remain calm. I ve seen you do it before, dear. God gave you hands that work very well, and you ve learned other difficult pieces before. The daughter wasn t readily convinced, but the conversation continued. Dad talked about the time Moses told God, I m not good at speaking, and God answered, Who gave man his mouth? (Exodus 4:10,11). Dad brought up the fact that music is a wonderful way to praise God. Paul tells us that whatever we do is to be done to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Certainly the way a young musician approaches piano practice can be included under that ideal. It took a while to get through the music lesson that day, but life lessons were shared in the process. Faith came to the foreground, and the young girl s mood changed dramatically. Our families are to have a spiritual outlook on life. No part of the day not a thing we do during the week is to be disconnected from our connection with Jesus Christ. The father could have simply scolded his daughter and demanded she do her duty and stop her temper tantrum. But he saw an opportunity for nurturing faith and connecting faith with actions. This is the sort of opportunity we look for continually in our desire to feed our families spiritually. Every day there are occasions to connect our hope of heaven with what is happening on earth, to relate the promises of Jesus to our family s hurts and needs. Providing admonition from God s law and encouragement from his gospel in those daily moments is, in spiritual terms, like providing water to the thirsty. 4 Spiritual life is life Many disciples deserted Jesus when he insisted that unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his

9 blood, you have no life in you ( John 6:53). This was too hard a teaching for them to accept. Jesus was telling them that a casual acquaintance with him was not the kind of relationship he desired. Your religion cannot be merely a side plot in the story of your life. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life, Jesus said ( John 6:63). Spiritual life is life. Who we are as people of God is what defines our existence. Believing in Jesus flesh and blood given into death for our sins that is the only thing that gives meaning to our lives. Feeding our families spiritually begins when we focus our families overall attention on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). Remind yourself and teach your children that school, sports, work, and leisure are not what life is really about. We don t live for our jobs or for good grades or for the chance to go fishing. The lives we live, we live for the Lord (Romans 14:8). Everything else that we do derives its value and purpose from our relationship with Jesus. Let s talk about this Answers to these questions can be found at Locate the booklet you are reading, and you will find a link to access the answers. 1. Attending to spiritual needs should be the first concern of every family member. But we must admit that often this is not the case. What are some goals or activities that sometimes seem more important to you or to your family than spiritual things? 5

10 2. We must work in order to eat. We can t avoid the dayto-day tasks of life and sit praying all day long. How can we keep the spiritual side of life in mind in the midst of our material existence? 3. How might a spiritual view of life affect how a family thinks about homework, bedtimes, or misbehavior (the examples raised in the introduction)? Can you list other aspects of family life that are affected by a spiritual perspective? 4. Won t our family be considered strange if we try to be so spiritual all the time? That isn t normal, is it? 5. What does it mean to regard people from a worldly point of view? What does it mean to regard them from a spiritual standpoint? 6. As Christians, you and the members of your family are new creations in Christ. What are some specific ways you hope to see this newness become evident in your life? 6