Wives, Husbands, Children, Fathers!
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter towards them. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.
Colossians 3: 18-21
Submit, love, obey, and don't provoke.....sounds like a recipe for a peace filled home. If we are moms that like household rules....let's just take these four as we enter into summer and see what happens when the rules (biblical commands)....or as my bible titles it The Christian Home, are lived out among the household. Charts and stars might not be needed. Four verses, prayer, and God's Word sinking into the hearts of our home, might bring such a blessing this summer that we would make it a lifestyle.
Interesting that the first verse was given to wives. As we have learned the past few weeks from Proverbs 31....we really do have a sacred influence.
So maybe if we could ask the Lord to help us understand and apply submission....then our husbands might have an easier go at loving us, which from the harmony of mom and dad might flow children who obey IN ALL THINGS, causing fathers to not be tempted to provoke the children in their anger....thus having encouraged kiddos verses discouraged and cranky ones.
And who among us would not just LOVE THIS??
Possible....with God. So let's pray His Word..
Dear Father, thank You that it really is possible to have a peace filled home this summer. My heart longs for it. I understand from our my own efforts to control it...that nothing much lasts for more than a few days or at most, the first week.
However, Your Word inspires me. I know that submission is biblical. Where I do not understand it...teach me. Where I willingly don't obey it....convict me. And when I surrender it as unto You...bless me. Bless my home and all who live in it. Let obedience and order in the home start with my heart.
Where I am not honoring my husband or respecting the role of husband, help me to see where I might be tempting him to be bitter towards me. I pray that he would have energy left over to put into our marriage. Ignite in him a passion for new love where his heart might be angry or bitter.
Your Word says that is pleases You, when my children obey in all things. I pray that I would desire that they please You, over pleasing me, or the world, or their peers. I pray that our marriage done Your way...would bring peace to their hearts and a safe place to receive truth and grace from us as parents.
I pray for my husband to have kind words of truth spoken over harsh words when discipline needs to be given. Give him extra grace as he loves each one.
Where he has provoked or discouraged them, heal their hearts with Your perfect love and infuse his heart with Your love so it overflows and spills over to our entire family.
Amen
~Terrie Chevaillier
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