Rebuilding: A Family Affair

The rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem was going to be a long hard process with many delays and challenges and opposition including the threat of physical harm looming over their shoulders. Not only were the fathers showing an example of being committed to God’s plan and work but also having the heart and passion to stick to it until the end.

Third, families put God first in their lives. To be a strong family means to place God first in everything you do. It means when God calls, you answer and jump right in. It means reading Scripture together as a family. It means praying before you eat a meal together and praying as a family. It means everyone attending Sunday School together. It means making worship a weekly event each Sunday. It means being an example for your children in the faith. I remember very clearly my mother asking me to put my parent’s tithe in the offering plate each month. My father was a pastor and my mother a pre-School teacher but that check for $600 a month made an impression on me. Now I’m not going to lie to you: I thought about how many toys I could buy which my friends had but I did not. But I can also tell you that I have tithed ever since. It’s not just about putting God first in your family life but also letting your children see God first in your life too.

Putting God first also means serving God together as a family. This is what the families working on the wall were doing, laboring and toiling under the hot sun to do the will of God. One of the things my family has done is come serve in the feeding ministry the first Saturday of each month. The family that serves together and puts Christ first together is bound together and that creates strong families. Children who come from strong families centered on Christ become radical followers of Jesus. Children who come from strong families usually become strong parents. There’s something about the healthy family which prepares children for life. It’s a family affair.

Fourth, families choose to make a difference where they are. “Adjoining this, Jedaiah son of Harumaph made repairs opposite his house….” Nehemiah teaches us that God uses the people we call family to restore the brokenness in a broken city. Nehemiah realized that to fortify the walls of Jerusalem, he is going to have to use fortified families who heard the call to work and had the commitment to respond. Nehemiah needed families who were committed to the mission and were willing to make an impact where they were. The families who lived in Jerusalem worked on the wall in their neighborhood. Why? Because they had ownership of that area and they were invested in it. Let me ask you? How invested are you in your neighborhood? What impact are you having ? How are you helping to rebuild the broken homes and broken lives of your neighbors? How are you being the light of Christ and the salt of the earth for the people next door?

One thing you need to understand is that though these families were rebuilding the outer walls of Jerusalem, the inner walls of the lives still lied in ruins. Though the Persian government allowed the walls to be rebuilt, the culture and community stayed the same. But the one thing the Persian government failed to realize is that whenever you allow strong families to begin to rebuild a community and some even re-inhabit it, something had to change. Not only would the families rebuild the walls, but they would begin to rebuild the community and their culture too. Whenever you have strong families, communities and governments have to change. Whenever you have strong families, you have strong community clubs like Rotary, the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. Whenever you have strong families, you have a better school system. Whenever you have strong families, you have a people infra-structure which is empowered to make a difference and to make a change. It’s a family affair.