Family.

After God created the Heavens and the Earth, the sky and seas, day and night, birds and animals, He made Adam. And then God said that it wasn’t good for man to be alone, so He created Eve from Adam. And after God created their union, they had children.

As I’ve gotten closer to God, I have continually gained a better understanding of the value of family.

God has shown us through His actions of creation and His Word that family is important to Him.

Sometimes, we forget what’s important to God and that means that we forget that family is important to Him, which in turn means that we don’t value family more.

We allow time to lapse where we don’t speak to family members.

We hold grudges from years past to shape our present relationships.

We miss family dinners and holidays because of extracurricular activities.

We bring our work home in efforts to have more family time, but what our family actually gets is a distracted and not fully present loved one.

We send mixed signals about our faith to our loved ones.

We choose not to engage and embrace some family members.

We leave our families.

We hurt our families.

That was never the plan God had for families.

Since we know that God values family so very much, what can we do to value our families more?

Have family nights?
Apologize?
Worship together?
Serve together?
Cook together?
Be more trustworthy for them?
Plan trips together?
Visit family together?
Choose healing?
Communicate with one another?
Study His Word together?
Eat dinner together with no TV and no phones?

Our charge now, in this very moment  - is to CHOOSE - choose ONE thing (either from the list above or find your own thing) and begin to do it.

Schedule it.
Set a reminder on your phone.
Mark it on your calendar.
Put a sticky note on your fridge.

Feed and nurture whatever you CHOOSE.

Let’s not allow excuses, life, our pasts, our hurts, or distractions keep us from being better stewards of the gift of family God has blessed us with and trusts us to care for.