Appreciating Family

By Alexandra Copeland

2Corinthians 14:33 tells us that God is not the author of confusion. He is a God of peace and order. Going back to the Book of Genesis, we can see clearly that our Heavenly Father has setup life in a very specific and well-ordered way. Human beings have a tendency to want to bring things down to a level that is convenient for them, but we can’t do this with God. He’s God all by Himself, and brilliance is woven into everything He does. In recent years, we’ve heard a lot about heaven’s economy, and it is very useful for us to understand it, because there has been a lot of erroneous teaching out there. Heavenly Father loves abundance, and He deals in the realm of the exceedingly abundant, but He is never wasteful. Again, He set up things in a very orderly fashion, so that we can learn lessons about His nature, and we also can learn the value and importance of maintaining and growing in our relationship with Him.

One of the ways Heavenly Father helps us to grow and learn is through the family unit. God could have structured things completely different. He has been very deliberate about His statues and commandments regarding marriage, because He wants to preserve this institution. It’s HIS institution. It belongs to Him, and we don’t get to take it out of the purposes for which He has ordained it simply to suit our own agendas. In Genesis 2:24, we learn that a man is to move from a role of receiving support and nurturing from his mother and father, and transition to the role of joining to his wife so that the two become one; they begin to function in such unity that they are looked upon by Heavenly Father as one unit.

This is God’s original intention for marriage, and it has not changed. Nations, societies, and whole generations have changed, but Malachi 3:6 reminds us that God never does. He doesn’t change, and neither does His Word. Everything about life, all the lessons we are to learn, are about instructing us in the practice of remaining faithful and fully committed to our relationship with God and His statutes. We are to align our wills with His Will. His intentions for humanity have not changed, and we must be ever so careful to follow His directives.

The advancements of medicine, technology, and industry have been monumental, and we have benefited from them in many ways, but there have also been down sides. And in some cases, the down sides have had a catastrophic impact on family unity. More importantly, these advances have been used by the devil to distract and keep us separated from God’s Will. We make the mistake of calling God’s way outdated, and we label our way as the exciting, better, shiny, and brand-new thing. It is a huge mistake to do this. King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 1:9(NKJV), “That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun.” We shouldn’t be overly impressed with ourselves. Yes, we have made great strides, but it is because of the goodness of God. The purpose of this increased intellect is to know and understand Him better, so that we can take on His nature in a greater way.

In order to grow, we need to be fed by a source. This is Humanities-101. It’s the Source of life itself who helps us to grow, develop, and mature; because we cannot grow without His help. He makes it possible for us to receive the food that is necessary to sustain us. Be it physical or spiritual, it all comes from God, but it does us no good if we do not take it in.

We must ingest nourishment in order to process it and grow from its nutrients. We must mentally process knowledge to increase in any way from its wisdom, because this is how God created us to operate. We need only test our physical strength after having nothing to eat for a few days to know the importance of being fed something that actually sustains life. Well, the Word of God is life! It will do more than sustain us. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 4:4 that humans cannot live by bread alone, but we must live by every Word that comes from God. We need a life-giving Source of spiritual nutrition, which is the Word of God. The Word gives us the instruction we need to grow in Christ, so that we can live by his love.

This is the pattern, the order that God has set. He has given us parents to teach and nurture us so that we can grow into spiritually mature people who fulfill God’s plan rather than trying to subtract from it. He expects that our parents took this responsibility to heart. He expects that because they have parented us, we will have matured into adults that will do as Ephesians 5:1(NLT) tells us, which is to “Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.” We will then, in turn, do as our parents did, which is to raise children with a sense of do-rightness, who will love God and follow the example of Christ, as we model it before their eyes.

Psalm 127:3(NKJV) tells us, “Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him.”  We are honored and privileged to invest our time into children. They don’t belong to us; they belong to God. Parents are given the responsibility to steward their children and families with the understanding that we are stewarding God’s heritage. His Word lives on through children. When we see them this way, we will have even greater reverence and respect when it comes to demonstrating and teaching them the love of Christ. It is a privilege to have family with members that span multiple generations. They are a gift from God because every relationship, whether its parents, sisters, brothers, aunts or cousins; is precious, because God designed them to both teach and show us His love.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. 

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

“Appreciating Family”, by Alexandra Copeland. Copyright © 2019. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.