Yahoo! That’s easy; I totally love my husband and my children!!
Wait, there’s a catch. At least it is worth mentioning, God’s ways are not man’s ways. God’s way of loving our husband and our children is not the world’s way of loving one’s family.
God says, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:12-13.
To love our family we must lay our life down for them. To lay our life down is serving them. “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:28.
Again we need to understand what this service looks like. If we just serve our children or our husband, it becomes laden with expectations. We start to get bitter, start to want something back. Our thoughts become a burden, “Why can’t they just say ‘thank you’”, “All I do is give, when will someone do something for me?”, “I’m tired; can’t someone see I need help?”
But, if we serve our husband and children as an offering to the Lord in response to what He has done for us, it becomes laden with thankfulness. Thanks for the privilege of being a wife to this man and a mother to these children. Thankfulness for knitting each baby together in my womb; plus continuing to knit each of them together as they grow. Thanksgiving for God’s unchanging word; a guideline to frame our family around. Thanks for the Holy Spirit that brings to remembrance what we need when we need it. He is our counselor that guides each step of our lives. And great thankfulness for salvation, our eternal hope. A hope that goes beyond this world; the hope we want so desperately to pass on to our children.
This kind of service does not demand a child responds in a certain time frame, it says, “Have Your way Lord. I am Yours to use, in whatever time frame it takes to accomplish Your will.”
So, love your family by laying down you life to serve them. The walls of your home provide your greatest realm of influence. Titus 3:14 “Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.”