3 Godly Guidelines For Great Families

3 Godly Guidelines For Great Families

Deuteronomy 6:1-9

Remember last week I ask - have you ever prayer a prayer like this, “God, I just commit my child to your safe keeping”?

The Pastor’s Cat…

Dwight Nelson recently told a true story about the pastor of his church. He had a kitten that climbed up a tree in his yard and then was afraid to come down. The pastor coaxed, offered warm milk, etc.

The kitty would not come down. The tree was not sturdy enough to climb, so the pastor decided that if he tied a rope to his car and drove away so that the tree bent down, he could then reach up and get the kitten.

That’s what he did, all the while checking his progress in the car. He then figured if he went just a little bit further, the tree would be bent sufficiently for him to reach the kitten. But as he moved the car a little further forward, the rope broke.

The tree went "boing!" and the kitten instantly sailed through the air-out of sight. The pastor felt terrible. He walked all over the neighborhood asking people if they’d seen a little kitten. Nobody had seen it. So he prayed, "Lord, I just commit this kitten to your keeping," and went on about his business.

A few days later he was at the grocery store, and met one of his church members. He happened to look into her shopping cart and was amazed to see cat food. This woman was a cat hater and everyone knew it, so he asked her, "Why are you buying cat food when you hate cats so much?" She replied, "You won’t believe this," and then told him how her little girl had been begging her for a cat, but she kept refusing. Then a few days before, the child had begged again, so the Mom finally told her, "Well, if God gives you a cat, I’ll let you keep it."

She said to the pastor, "I watched my child go out in the yard, get on her knees, and ask God for a cat. And really, Pastor, you won’t believe this, but I saw it with my own eyes. A kitten suddenly came flying out of the blue sky, with its paws outspread, and landed right in front of her."

I read in the Union Democrat last week of a couple from Sonora...The Petersons - they just celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary. Cecil, 89, and Pansy, 85, got married five days before Valentine Day, on Saturday, February 9, 1935.

Cecil says, “You know you’re getting old when your children are senior citizens."

When asked the secret to their 70-year marriage, Cecil said…“The view of marriage in the early 1900s was that it was a lifelong commitment.” Then Patsy said, "It starts from the beginning, from how you look at marriage. It’s not something you take lightly."

Carl Zimmerman wrote a very important book called, “Family and Civilization” In it he studies 3000 years of family life. This Harvard Professor makes a powerful case for the tradition family structure. The summation of the book goes something like this…so goes the children so goes the culture, or so goes the family so goes society!

The declining life of children translates into a declining culture of life! President Bush has said that, “America needs to choose a culture of life rather than death.” I agree! To think that America has 1.5 million abortions a year, this brings a serious charge to the values of this country!

Carl Zimmerman gives 7 warning signs to a declining nation:

· An Increased rate of divorce. Quick and easy no fault divorce.

· The failure to understand the permanence of the marriage model.

· A looser standard of family as a solution to social problems.

· Lack of respect to parental authority.

· A promotion of co-habitation over marriage.

· The breakdown of most inhibitions against adultery.

· Acceptance of all forms of sexuality.

Dr. Zimmerman wrote, “As we watch the destruction of the family, so we simultaneously watch the collapse of society.”

Maybe your thinking, “This is just another Christian’s conclusions.” Wrong, this man was a secular historian and he never confessed to be a Christian. By the way, this book was written in 1947!

We have a popular show called “Home Makeover”, where a crew comes in and totally remodels someone’s house. In some cases, they tear down virtually everything from room to room and all that is left are the 2 by 4’s.

May I say that what is true for a house is true for a family? We might do better tearing down some family’s foundation than to tear down some family’s house only to begin again!

Key: The makeover for a house comes from Hollywood, but the makeover for a home comes from heaven!