Putting family relationships into the right context

“The only ordinary homes seem to be the ones we don’t know much about, just as the only blue mountains are those ten miles away.” -- C.S. Lewis

“A search of Scripture turns up a rather surprising truth – there are no exemplary families. Not a single family is portrayed in such a way as to evoke admiration in us… The biblical material consistently portrays the family not as a Norman Rockwell group, beaming in gratitude around a Thanksgiving turkey, but as a series of broken relationships in need of redemption… We are faced, daily, with the reality that something has gone wrong with our families. Our children fight and quarrel; our parenting misfires. We are involved in failure, and we feel guilty. Something has, of course, gone wrong with the family, but it went wrong long before we came on the scene. It is futile to complain or feel guilty; we can, though, go to work and nurture family life on the new grounds provided by the Holy Spirit. Blood relationships are transformed into relationships of grace. Our natural families are informed and redeemed by the same principles that are foundational in the community of the Holy Spirit, the Church.” – Eugene Peterson

Be encouraged, men! We have an awesome God who leads us in this important work. “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” (2 Peter 1:3)