Our First Responsibility: Our Family

"The most discerning audience we will ever have is our own family. They know precisely whether or not our life matches our message.  Only when we pass the test of consistent living at home are we qualified to expand our ministry. Our family responsibilities are not barriers to a future ministry; they are basic training for it. For example, the skills David leaned in order to protect and feed the family flock were later used to conquer a giant and feed a nation. The skills  church leaders learns in order to meet the needs of his own family will be used to understand and meet the needs of the church. This explains why Christ told a certain man to go home to his family and first demonstrate his faith to them."

I've mentioned it before, but one of the very favorite resources used by our family are the three volumes of Character Sketches. The quote above is from one of the four chapters on the character quality of Availability in volume 2. The definition for Availability being studied in this chapter says:

"Availability is serving my family first before I consider other needs or wants."                          I Timothy 5:8

Our homes are our training grounds. Walking in the fullness of understanding in what He desires to accomplish in our souls through the responsibilities we carry at home puts even the mundane tasks in a different light. If we truly believe that everything we do in our home, before or for our family, is for His Glory and our sanctification, we can't treat any of it as unimportant. 


Don't hear a burden in this, hear an opportunity. 


If we understand just how much He desires to accomplish in our souls through ministry in our homes, to our families, it actually gives us more Grace (defined as the power and desire to do His Will). It actually energizes our Purpose and plants seeds of exciting expectation as we await the Fruit He will bring forth, not only in our hearts, but in our home, our children, our spouse. 


As we focus on the ministry of the Home and Hearth, it helps us say "no" to things that are not for this season. By refining our purpose, we are granted discernment to see requests for the expenditure of our resources in the context of our main focused responsibility in this season. When we clearly see our responsibility, it helps us commit to only those things that will bless our purpose in this season, knowing that, as we are faithful, He prepares us for expanded ministry in the next season.


We would be wise not to despise the season of "small things." Small does NOT mean unimportant. Instead, these "small things," the ones seen by only a few, are extremely important if we are to be fitted well for His Purposes. Focusing on the "small things" is the only way to learn to be used in the "big things," where our influence and ministry are expanded by Him to accomplish His Purposes. In our families, the small things all matter. And, if we pay attention to our hearts here, He will purify and build into us a foundation on which can be built expanded areas of influence and ministry, by His Hand, in His Time. 


My family see me clearly. They know when I am chaffing under the yoke of ministry in our home. They know when I am despising the season of small things. They recognize when my attitude is not that of a servant, joyfully ministering in my responsibilities. And in those times when I am centered on self, I miss out on the potential to influence, the blessing of serving, the opportunity to humble myself. Every time I choose poorly, it costs our family something. None of my choices, as a wife and mother, are made in a vacuum. They all affect those He has given me to serve. And they cost me, in rejecting an opportunity to be made more into His Image in that moment of choice.


It is no accident that I still have several children at home (all day :). The refining of the "silver for the Silversmith's use" is requiring decades, in my case. I'm a "tough nut to crack."