Preacher, are you bringing your family down?

Every one knows that it was God’s idea to use the “Family” motif when it comes to church (1 Chronicles 9:13, the first use of “house of God”; Psalm 89:26, the first time God is called a Father; Ephesians 2:19; 1 Timothy 3:15). It is God who makes us brothers and sisters in His large Family. I was thinking, as preachers often do, about some corrective things that I needed to communicate and it dawned on me that I’d fallen into a rut of corrective teaching.

See, we are all a part of a family.  Most of us are dads or granddads, husbands - we are leaders in our family.  And every family, even the happiest most adjusted of us, have issues. We have that area where we wish our kids would straighten up, grow up, shape up. We have things we can’t or don’t discuss with our spouses cause we see it differently. We wish “they” would clean better, think different, spend less or some such thing.  We all know how our families could be better.

What if in your family as the leader all you did was correct. What if every conversation with your son was about keeping his room clean, every discussion with your daughter was about bringing her math scores up, every evening with your spouse was about handling money better?  What if you never lived big, never laughed hard, never exuded confidence in them, never dreamed large, never shared your love. I know families like that - and I’m thankful mine isn’t and I hurt for those who are.  And from what I read in scripture God’s Family isn’t to be that way either.

Preacher, are you focusing so much on what needs to be corrected, improved, changed, better - that you are bringing “your” Family down.  There is a time, seems true in this culture more and more, for focusing on those areas, but if that is all you do, you become a broken record and if there is no energy, life, hope, dream, love in that Family then maybe you need to see what you are communicating. Are you bringing God’s Family down by your preaching? If so, don’t beat yourself up, just do better.