How to Be the Spiritual Leader of Your Family
Becoming an Effective Spiritual Leader of Your Family
- Rick Johnson Author
- 2006 31 Jul
The not bad doers of history have always been men of faith. ~ Edwin Hubbel Chapin I once heard of a homo who went into his daughter's room and prayed over her every dark subsequently she fell comatose. She grew up and left for higher. The post-obit Christmas she came home for a visit.
Talking to her female parent one afternoon, she said, "Daddy yet prays for me every night even though I'thousand away at college, doesn't he?"
"How in the earth did you know that?" her mother replied.
The girl replied with confidence, "I tin can however see his knee marks in the rug next to my old bed."
Were you blessed to take had a father who prayed faithfully for yous when you were growing up? Only a modest per centum of men I ask answer yes. How do yous think your life might have been different if you had had a father who did that?
Try this experiment: go into your kids' room at night, kneel downwards, lay easily on their heads or backs, and petition God's blessings upon them. You lot'll discover it a powerful moment. Your kids volition stay very all the same nether the blankets because, big or small, they recognize the significance of that human activity.
A pastor also once told me to pray not just for my ain children'due south purity but for their future spouses' purity besides. And he said to pray for their future spouses' parents, that they would take wisdom to heighten their children inside God's laws. I've never forgotten that communication.
When your children know you are praying for them, for their sexual purity, and for the purity of their future spouse, this knowledge gives them a guidepost to hang on to. Information technology also provides a form of accountability more powerful than blank parental authority.
The purpose of drawing close to God is non only to discern our destiny simply also to lead our family and those closest to us to salvation. Part of our role equally leaders of our families is to be spiritual mentors for our wives and children. It'southward the responsibility I felt least acceptable to fulfill when I accepted Christ into my life. Simply God is more interested in what y'all can get than in what yous are at present. Interestingly, I found that my wife and children willingly followed my lead into spiritual growth—no matter how pathetic my efforts as a teacher and guide.
Shortly after becoming a Christian, I was blessed to bring together Good Shepherd Customs Church in Gresham, Oregon. Stu Weber is the senior pastor of this church building. Stu wrote such manly books as Tender Warrior and 4 Pillars of a Man'due south Heart, and he was a big influence in my growth every bit a man and a father. I used to remark to my wife that listening to one of Stu'south sermons was like eating a big, steaming-hot bowl of stew on a cold and rainy afternoon—it always left me total, contented, invigorated, and satisfied.
Our odyssey to Proficient Shepherd was probably not unusual. We had visited many churches over the previous ten years. Fifty-fifty though I wasn't a laic during that fourth dimension, I thought information technology was good for my children to exist exposed to Christian values. At several churches, we stayed for a year or and so. In most of those cases, nosotros suspect that no 1 knew we were attention, as they never approached u.s.a.. Certainly no ane seemed to notice when nosotros left.
One weekend while my wife and I were abroad on a business organization trip, a young woman named Amy babe-sat our children, taking them to nourish a Good Shepherd service. When nosotros got dorsum, the kids clamored for united states to "cheque out this awesome church building." After a calendar month or and then, we decided to visit Expert Shepherd.
The pastor preaching that day, Randy Alcorn, gave a blistering sermon on the sanctity of human being life, especially regarding the unborn. It was then convicting that my wife got up and walked out in the eye of the service. All in all, a rather inglorious starting time with our new church building family.
As God would have it, the church building was having a pastors' reception that evening for new members. I decided that any church willing to offend potential members in club to strongly promote an ideology they believed to be true was worth some other look. (I think the Holy Spirit had a lot to do with my decision too.) At the risk of incurring my wife'due south wrath, I took her to the reception. At that reception, the authenticity of the 3 pastors in omnipresence was and then strong that I was fatigued toward it without reservation.
While my wife was non particularly happy at the time about my decision to nourish the pastors' reception—or my subsequent conclusion for us to become church members—she readily followed my decisions in these spiritual matters.
Now, please understand that I was not a wise, mature Christian. I was a babe Christian in every sense of the give-and-take. The fact that she followed me speaks non only to her graphic symbol just too to the importance women place on men becoming spiritual leaders in their homes. I've heard it said that the number i complaint of women in the church is their husbands' spiritual apathy. Pastor January Hettiga once said, "The number one problem in the church building is the explosive combination of masculine apathy and feminine discontent." I submit to you that masculine apathy is the cause of feminine discontent. This apathy and lack of involvement is a trouble for men not only in church but also in the home. It's an all-pervasive tendency that we must suspension.
Fathers also play a pregnant function in passing on a spiritual foundation to their children—especially sons. When simply mom takes her sons to church while they're growing up, approximately 15 percent of boys remain churchgoers after they become adults. However, if dad takes an active role with mom in leading the family to church, the number who continue their spiritual journey increases to somewhere effectually 75 percent.5 That'due south a significant deviation that speaks to the ability men take to be spiritual influences upon their sons.
Many men are reluctant or even scared to atomic number 82 their families spiritually. I harbored many doubts early on on. What practise I know about theology? I'one thousand non worthy of such a huge chore that has eternal consequences. What if I mess up? I was then scared that I was searching for ways to evade this responsibility.
In the summertime of 1998, at the age of twelve, my son asked me to take him down on the field during a Hope Keepers event so he could accept the Lord. I tried making excuses why we shouldn't become, but Frank wouldn't accept my foot-dragging. When we finally approached one of the volunteers, he said to me, "Why don't you lot atomic number 82 your son to the Lord?" Gulp! What do I say? After much stumbling around, I managed to murmur plenty of a prayer to help Frank take Christ into his center. Since then, I've been blessed to watch his spiritual growth every bit a Christian, and someday I'll come across him equally a mighty man of God. I was later on blessed to baptize my wife and both our children—a truly humbling and awesome experience. God honored my feeble attempts at spiritual leadership past giving me these blessings.
Spotter and see what blessing he has stored up for you. Grab the helm and lead your family spiritually! Excerpted from Ameliorate Dads, Stronger Sons by Rick Johnson. To read Part I of this 4-function serial on Christian Fathering: Rising to the Challenge of Christian Fatherhood.
Used with permission of Revell, a partitioning of Baker Publishing Grouping.
Source: https://www.crosswalk.com/family/parenting/becoming-an-effective-spiritual-leader-of-your-family-1409876.html
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