This week’s devotions are based on “The Key” Week 3: “Ground Your family in grace!” (WATCH HERE)
Whenever something isn’t working, it is important to understand what isn’t working and then fix the situation. I’m one that loves to tinker with things to understand how they work and also fix them. To be honest, many people let go of things that don’t work and with a small amount of effort the item can be fixed and used again. I would take my toys apart as a kid to understand how they worked and see if I could get them working again.
To some degree, I put a similar lens on look at the society around us and notice things that aren’t working or seem broken or just messed up. One has to ask, “What is broken?” To even ask the question, “What is broken?” implies that there was a “new” condition that things came in that has been altered in some way. To say something is “broken” is simply to acknowledge that the item is not functioning as the original maker intended it to work.
The family in America is broken. I get that is a very broad sweeping statement. However, we even use the term “broken family” to refer to a family unit that was a husband and wife and children and now the husband and wife are divorced and the kids split time between the two. It is no longer functioning as it was originally intended. A close relative to “broken” is “alternative.” Our culture uses “alternative” family for things that look like the original but are “one-off’s” of the original. The point is, there are many iterations in our culture of “family” that are not what the original was intended to be. To some degree the original is being held up as the “old-fashioned” and when it’s labeled “traditional” it is seen almost as a negative than a positive.
So if we are going to understand family, we must go back to the OG, the original. We must understand the original design and the One who designed it. To be sure, this devotional thought is NOT in anyway to disparage those who are working hard to ground their family in grace in spite of the brokenness that has been part of their family history. In fact, these situations absolutely need the grace of God to heal the hurts and strengthen the bonds and do things God’s way moving forward.
The family is not a social construct that needs deconstruction. The family is a divinely created formation to be the foundation of society. In Genesis, before sin entered the world, here is what God said to the first two people, Adam and Eve, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” (Genesis 1:28) The family was a husband and wife and as the Lord blessed, children were brought into that family. Genesis 2:24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
God’s design for the family has always been a man in a committed marriage with a woman. And in that loving, serving relationship children were brought into the world to be nurtured and guided.
So what has created the brokenness? The simple answer is sin. Sin breaks God’s design and offers alternatives to it. The alternatives may work in certain aspects, but will never fully give the blessing that God intends when families are constructed and function as he designs.
This structure is what we need to pray for and promote. And when it breaks, we pick up the pieces and with God’s grace bring forgiveness, restoration and hope to those situations. When God’s grace fills every home, regardless of how broken it is (and because of sin, every home has brokenness), God’s blessing is realized in that home. So “traditional families” continue to fill your home with grace. Single parents, continue to fill your hearts and homes with God’s grace. When a family is grounded in grace, the blessing of God resides there.
Apply: What is your family situation? A short devotion won’t cure all, but I pray the grace of God covers all in your family and each day you walk closer with him.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for the gift of my family, no matter how broken it is or was, I know your grace is a powerful healer to restore and rebuild and receive the blessing you give through families. AMEN.