Today the world is very different from a year ago. I have now been working from home for over 6 months. Not going into the office, no travel, lots of conference calls, and Zoom meetings. Quite an adjustment to my former way of doing business.
In the past, I had worked from my home for over 24 years, setting up appointments, taking care of administrative duties, and then traveling to meet with my customers. Technology was not what it is today, that was the way it had to be done. Once I moved from a territory manager into upper management, I was pulled back into the office environment, and had to adjust to the office life.
Now I am re-adjusting to working from home again. I do miss the travel after traveling for over 40 years, but with today's technology, I am still able to meet with my customers, my publishers, and fellow workers virtually.
I have to say, I have come to terms with these changes.
My yard has never looked better, I think because I see it every day through my office window and this reminds me of the work that needs to be done. I have also enjoyed spending more time with my wife, having lunch with her, and talking via phone with my children and grandchildren all hours of the day. These changes prompted me into thinking about what has happened in our lives.
Maybe God has allowed this virus to wake us up to His original plan. To help us understand and to open our eyes to the importance of home and family.
God invented families and homes. Though God is our "ultimate power source", families and homes can also be a "power source" for our lives.
God intended for the home to be a family’s foundation, a place of security. The family is the most important institution in the world. It was God’s idea, and He ordained it. It was not the idea of sociologists. Families and homes existed before cities and governments, before written language, nations, temples, and churches.
God meant for the home to be a place where character and attitudes were formed, integrity born, and values made clear. These are attributes that last a lifetime.
Billy Graham
People today have grown accustomed to wringing their hands with fear and insecurity, caring more about what happens on Wall Street or in Washington, D.C. We bring our anxieties into the home, adding to the tensions this world brings to our lives.
The prophet Nehemiah recorded,
“There is so much rubbish that we are not able to build” (Nehemiah 4:10).
We see rubbish everywhere – rubbish on our televisions, on digital devices, in the literature, and in magazines that poke fun at the idea of traditional home experience. These things break down the walls of a home. The institution of the home once fortified society.
A popular personality was asked about the institution of marriage and home.
She responded,
“Who wants to live in an institution?”
This is typical of the ridicule that has been heaped on the home.
Our goal must be not only to create a home, but a Christian home.
If we try to do this only by immersing our children in American culture, we will “labor in vain.” We even run the risk of building on a sandy foundation that could leave our house, our family, in danger in the storms of life. When we let the life of God flow through us and into our children through our intentional, purposeful, life-giving relationship with them, that is how “the Lord builds the house.” As parents we need to remember our children are imitators. The watch us and do what we do.
A Christian home is never defined by what the children are doing…it is defined by what the parents are doing.
Clay Clarkson is Director of Whole Heart Ministries
Remember what Moses said to the people.
The people of Israel were about to enter the Promised Land, Moses charged them as parents,
“These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children”
(Deuteronomy 6:6-7a).
Moses was saying,
“You cannot impress upon your children's hearts truth that is not first impressed upon your own heart.”
To build a Christian home. It all starts with your heart.
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”
Colossians 3:16,17
If families would return to God and make Him the focus of the home and the heart of the family, reading the Bible that brings comfort in turmoil and light to dark pathways, the nation would begin to rebuild on a sure foundation.
“Through wisdom, a house is built, and by understanding, it is established”
(Proverbs 24:3).
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