An 8-year old boy had been naughty and his mother said, “I told you if you were naughty again that you were going to get a spanking.” He knew what was coming, so he ran upstairs, went into his room, and hid under his bed. His father came home from work a few minutes later, and the mother told him what his son had done. He immediately went upstairs and began to crawl under the bed in his son’s direction.
Excitedly, but nervous, the boy said, “Hi, dad! What’s the matter? Is mom after you too?”
Sometimes things get pretty strained around the house, don’t they? Differences creep in between members of the family. Disagreements crop up that are divisive in nature. The atmosphere suddenly changes, and a member of the family has to run hide under a bed for protection.
Many are the things that can rob a home of its spiritual significance – envy, jealousy, greed, selfishness, etc. When a husband and wife allow such negative attitudes to gain a prominent place in their daily lives their love for each other can dwindle and die. And when this happens they lose their ability to deal constructively with the problems and challenges that make the family a battleground.
A bride on her wedding day, though swept off her feet and carried away on a cloud of love, does not always realize how easily love can be allowed to dissipate. A groom, who has eyes only for his beautiful bride, often fails to see that grave responsibilities lie just around the corner. Positive adjustments will have to be made, and in a hurry. When this doesn’t happen the sunshine of love suddenly disappears and dark ominous clouds of trouble appear on the horizon.
What about your home? Do you have enough love there to enable victory over the problems and burdens that can easily take place? Are you willing to love at all costs? The New Testament describes the highest type of love as being willing to love even when there are obstacles to overcome. If that kind of love is daily present in your home it can be “a colony of heaven.” If it doesn’t, your home can be a living hell.
What is a home? It is a world of strife shut out, and a world of love shut in. It is one of the primary places on the earth where faults and failures of fallen humanity are hidden under the mantle of charity. It is the father’s kingdom, the children’s paradise, and the mother’s world. If serving God is given priority, it is the place where you are treated the best and can be totally happy. An anonymous poet expressed it this way:
“Before I married Shirley, Dear,
I was her pumpkin pie,
Her precious peach, her honey lamb,
The apple of her eye.
But after years of married life,
This thought I pause to utter;
Those fancy names might be gone,
But I’m still her bread and butter.”
The Paper Pulpit 
Leave a Reply