Hearts of the Family

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. (Malachi 4:5-6 KJV)

It was nice to get a reminder through Treasures from a Shoebox about this verse. Yes, my children are grown – doesn’t matter, does it? There’s no age limit in that verse, is there? My children are always my children and I will always be their parent. Probably not in eternity, though, since Jesus said:

For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. (Matthew 22:30 KJV)

Think of the prodigal’s father in Luke 15, more than eager to forgive and return his son into the family. The father, always ready, while the son made decisions that placed him in horrible ways of life. That’s the picture God described, but people still live.

The biblical family structure is one husband, one wife and children. Even though the Bible describes men having multiple wives, that was not God’s plan, neither was divorce, as Jesus said:

And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. (Matthew 19:4-8 KJV)

Yes, professing Christians divorce – and that should not be. Their children suffer. Multiple marriages, multiple divorces, multiple step-parents – plus children born without a father in their lives, or fathers that change from one marriage to the next. What have we done to generations of children simply because we are unable to properly wait for a soul mate? I read:

If he is not interested in your soul, he is not your soul mate

Our junior and senior high school girls feel the need for a man in their life. They will read this and think I’m an odd duck, but I pray they will try it -- Get a journal. May be simply a spiral binder, anything holding paper together so it can’t be torn out will do. Take a look at the one on Smelling Coffee’s site, that’s where I got the journal idea.

Write a journal to your husband – future in the case of the unmarried, but married women can do this, too – telling him that you are praying for him (and be sure to do so.) Tell him how you feel about the Lord, and how you pray he will feel, too.  Tell him about your expectations in your marriage. Tell him how you are preparing yourself for him and the Lord’s service.

If you are not thinking about him, what do you see in your future?