As For Me And My House: Why Everyone Needs A Christian Family Series

One of the strangest things that happens in the insect world is that a desert spider named the Stegodyphus lineatus sacrifices herself for the welfare of her young shortly after they hatch.

This practice is known as matriphagy. Here’s what the April Journal of Arachnology (who know there was such a thing) says:

Here’s what I read about her: “Found in the semi-arid regions of Israel and other parts of the Mediterranean’s, this mother spins her web in shrubbery and creates a silk disk that contains 70-80 eggs . When the babies emerge, they crawl all over her head and begin to consume her. She makes no attempt to escape, and they feast on everything she is except her heart. (There's got to be a supernatural message from that natural reality)

They leave it alone. Yet, from their consumption, they are provided the necessary nourishment to live and experience life.”

Transition:

In the world of Motherhood, I hope you ladies do not feel that you are being “eaten alive like a desert spider” but I do know that daily your life is marked by endless self-sacrifice for your families and that you do it willingly because of your deep love for others.

Someone said: “It’s appropriate that you cannot spell mother’s with out understanding that the title is spelled o-t-h-e-r-s; there’s just a “m” on the front of it.

As we thumb through the first pages of Genesis, we discover that after God formed the world out of what He describes as chaotic nothingness, God spoke emerging from the “void of absolute darkness” came a sudden burst of light and the unraveling of matter.

Yet, following 5 days of formation of life, plants, animals, birds God saved the best for the last; He created man on the 6th day, and at what appears to be the end of that day, he created the woman and formed a family.

Both were born without birth certificates nor were they given a marriage license; instead, both were formed, created, and called together as a team to reflect God’s great gift of love for a lifetime.

Through this glorious union, God formed the first institution on earth; it was called “the family.”

Today, we are going to revisit one of the foundational passages that Christian families are built upon. Through its instructive and inspirational message, we can see why the family is so important to God, as well as you and me.

Transitional Sentence: Why does God want everyone to have a Christian family? Why do we all need one?

I. Christian Families Help Develop Spiritual Appetites

vs, 6- “Train up a child in the way he should go…”

Explanation:

When we look into a mirror, we see physical resemblances and facial features that reflect the image of our mom’s and Dad’s.

I read an article this week from People Magazine that was entitled: “ Celebrity kids that stoke their parents’ whole faces.”

Here were my favorites:

1. Clint Eastwood and his son, Scott Eastwood

2. Mark Consuelos and his son, Michael

3. Ice Cube and his son, O’Shea

Yet, when we look beyond the mirror into the worldview we adopt, the life choices we often make, the staples of our daily living, and the spirit in our heart they are often a reflection of those traits of our parents as well.

Being part of a Christian family begins best when a couple decides as Joshua did as the spoke of his family and said: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15

The Book of Proverbs is known as the Book of Wisdom. In the Bible this should be one of the first places we go to gain insight about life and living; and in the case of the family; it has a lot to say about building a godly family.

In verse 6, we read: “Train up” a child in the way he should go.

The Hebrew phrase used here referred to the palate or roof of a baby’s mouth. It was used to describe what a Hebrew midwife would do when a baby was born.

She would dip her fingers in a sour fruit serum made from crushed dates and would massage the babies’ gums with the sour serum. The tangy serum would create a sensation for sucking causing the baby to easily respond to taking in nutrition from its mother.

Basically, the midwife was creating an appetite and response in the child quickly after birth.

In the same way, a Christian family “trains up” a child through a quick and consistent introduction to God’s Word. We do not create the hunger; but we help develop it.

This is why I Peter commands us to : “Desire the pure milk of God’s Word.” I Peter 2:2