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Someone once said that the three sweetest words in the English language are mother, home and Heaven. These three words all center on the middle one. No one thinks of their mother without thinking about home. And the home should be a picture and reminder of Heaven itself.

In Psalm 68:6 we read, "God sets the solitary in families." The greatest blessings God gives us are a home and a family.

It was in 1822 that John Howard Payne, the sixth of nine children, wrote his tender song, "Home, Sweet Home." The last three lines of that song say:
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like homeHome! Home! Home Sweet, homeThere is no place like home. There is no place like home.
God has ordained that the spiritual lives of His people be centered in the home.
Therefore you shall lay up these words of mind in your heart and in your soul...You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.
(Deut. 11:18-21 KJV)
Parents Are Responsible
As parents, God has given us the responsibility to teach His Word and His ways to our children at home. This doesn't just mean we do it at some weekly, pre-designated devotion time. Every single moment that we are awake, it is our job to incorporate the Word of God into the daily activities of our home lives.
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you. Take your everyday ordinary life — your sleeping, eating, going to work and walking around life — and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. Readily recognize what He wants from you and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its' level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you and develops well-formed maturity in you.
(Romans 12:1-3 MSG)
The late Dr. V. Raymond Edman, one-time president of Wheaton College, wrote:
Looking back on the way I brought up my children, if I had to do it over, I'd spend more time with them in simple, non-religious activities.
The things my grown children remember the most are the informal times of us just being together. The best communication with our kids doesn't take place in a five-minute devotional setting (although that isn't a bad thing to do). Usually, the most important things we say to our kids happen at times when we least expect it - in casual, offhand ways. If we don't have these regular times of casual contact, many important things won't ever get said. That is what makes home life so important.

Time Is Important
A baby chick is able to pick up its own food with little supervision and protection by the hen soon after it is hatched out its' shell.  In just a few short weeks' time, the young chicken does not need its' mother at all. Even kittens and small puppies are soon able to eat and to provide for themselves without their parents' protection and care.

Only human beings are given the privilege of an extended home life. Our children must be provided for, protected, fed and clothed for many years before they are able to care for their own needs and live independent lives.

God has given our kids an extended growing time so they can be in our homes to be molded, protected, taught and developed under our guidance.

The average American child will spend almost a third of his life living under a parent's guidance and care. That also means that, as parents, we will spend a major part of our lives raising our children and training them to lead long and prosperous lives when they're grown.
I do want to point out friends, that time is of the essence. There is not time to waste, so don't complicate your lives unnecessarily. Keep it simple in marriage, grief, joy, or whatever. Even in ordinary things - your daily routines of shopping and so on. Deal as sparingly as possible with the things the world thrusts on you. The world as you see it is on its way out.
(1 Cor. 7:29-31 MSG)

So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."
(Ps. 90:12 NKJV)
We only have one change with each of our children. Let's do everything we can to make sure we are successful.
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother - which is the first commandment with a promise - that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.
(Eph. 6:1-3)
The cost to our children and to ourselves, if we fail to train our kids properly is too great a price to pay.
For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.
(Gen. 18:19 NIV)
Never Too Late
Don't feel like you'll never be good enough as a parent or that you are going to fail.

God has called you and He has equipped you. Call things that be not as though they are if need be. If you've made mistakes, repent quickly, forgive quickly and move forward.

Copyright © Joe McGee Ministries
All rights reserved.

Author Biography

Joe McGee
Web site: Joe McGee Ministries
 
Joe McGee, author, national conference speaker, father, and former school administrator, is the founder and director of Joe McGee Ministries, Inc. and Faith For Families Ministries.
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