Building Strong, Healthy and Happy Families

Our mission for family should be to see that we build strong, healthy, and happy families. These are families that are united and built on the solid foundation of the Word of God and can withstand any storm in this world.

These are also families where individual members have great relationships with one another, are marked by love, peace, and are ready to grow on and go through any situation in life. They're also happy because the joy of the Lord is in their home, can do life together and can celebrate each other.

We should desire to see families become stronger and stronger because we cannot see healing in the city or the nation until there is healing at home. And the healing at home begins with the individuals in the home. It's the families that make the cities and then the nations. Healthy individuals will make up a healthy family and they will build a healthy nation.

Therefore, we need to stir up our hearts to see that we take up a pro-family attitude and work toward no more shame, no more division and no more defeat in our families. We want to see that our families are healed, healthy and strong.
 

The Family is the Foundation of Society

The family, like any foundation in the building, determines how big and how high individuals or churches or communities will rise. If you have a great foundation, you'll have a great building. The same goes for the family.

And so because family is foundational, we must pay attention and take appropriate action to uphold, to protect and to preserve the integrity of the family institution. We must treasure and even be more passionate about family than we say about many other things in society.
Today the family is faced with many tremendous things that contaminate and put family under pressure to become unhealthy. There are many forces; people, ideologies and agendas that seek to mar and destroy the family institution.

The health of the family, mentally, morally, emotionally, physically, is every single day going down the drain. Many people no longer want to commit to marriage, which we know is the beginning of a beautiful family. Laws are being made and others amended so that the family can break down legally and easily.

We find that rights are being promoted to replace what is right in the sight of God. Wrong is becoming acceptable as right and right is becoming labelled as phobia. And many abnormal and sick practices are becoming more and more acceptable in society.

We must get back to what is right and what is true. We should return our focus on the family; to preserve and guard it dearly. Because family is foundational.
 

What is a Family?

There are many definitions that can define a family some of which include;

• A group of people who are related by blood, marriage or adoption.
• A household or group consisting of parents and children living together.
• Descendants of a common ancestor. This is sometimes classified as a clan or a tribe.
• A social unit of people who love and support each other through their good times and their bad.

 
Why Family is Foundational in God's Plan

God established family as the best platform for His operations on the kingdom earth. His kingdom operates from the family. In Acts chapter 17, verses 26 to 27, this is what the Bible says;

From one man, He made all nations that they should inhabit the whole earth, and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He's not far from any one of us (NIV).

From one man, God created the family. Then He created communities and the nations. And His goal was that all the nations all around the world would seek Him. Not just look out to see what He is like.

Through the family, God extends His love, His rule, His dominion, His salvation over the earth. In Genesis chapter 1, verses 27 and 28, the Bible says,

So God created mankind in His own image. In the image of God He created them, male and female He created them. God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground (NIV).

What was His intention? That man would represent Him in every sphere of influence. That man would extend the love of God to every living thing. We are created in the image of God and where do we begin to leave that out? It's in the family.

God uses family terms to express His relationship with man. He uses family terms to reveal Himself to people of Israel. He's known as Abba, Father.

God gave His one and only begotten Son. What was His intent? So that through this first born, He would have many other sons who are brothers to the first and foremost son. And so we see that God determined right from creation that the final will be the best for blessing nations.

He chose to be born in a humble family. And this was in fulfilment of His promise to a family. And we notice that the whole line of the birth of Jesus Christ is a line of family that God watched over and protected and made sure that His promise will come to pass.

Not to a tree, not to an animal or something else but to a family. And so God focusses on the family. It's important to see that His salvation plan was embedded in generations of a long family line.

When God created family, He blessed it. And He gave it the power and authority to represent Him here on earth. In Genesis chapter 2, verse 18 through to24, He says,

 "It is not good for the man to be alone". He says, "I will make him a suitable helper". Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man. That's why a man leaves his father and mother, is united to his wife, they become one flesh and then they form a family.

So God established family as the most valuable and most powerful institution in the entire world. It's a place that produces men that are great and mighty in the land, intended to reflect His character in the entire universe.

And so because God places such significant value in the family, we cannot dare sit back and watch the family go wherever nature takes it. We should focus on preserving the family in God's perspective because it's foundational and God pays attention to it.
 

How Family Shapes Individuals and Nations

We also notice that family is foundational because it is central and fundamental to the holistic development of individuals who make up the community and make up the nations. 

Family is a place where we grow health-wise, and the health of individuals again affects the health of the nation. If the family is healthy, it will produce healthy individuals who are whole, empowered and have the capacity to keep breathing out health and blessing to thousands of generations.

We notice that the state of individuals in the family affects the state of the society and the nation. We have one story in the book of Joshua about one young man called Achan.

Achan stole some accursed things from battle and hid them in his house, disobeying the word of God. And what was the result? Because this man was greedy and didn't follow the instructions of God, destruction came on the nation of Israel. They had just had a big victory defeating Jericho. But when they came to a small little town called Ai, they were greatly defeated.

One person disobeyed the word of God and brought trouble on the whole nation. His whole family was deleted as a result.

So the state of the family affects our health as a nation by affecting the growth and development of individuals. Family serves as the incubator for the development of the building blocks of life, the inner and invisible qualities of character which counts in life. Great families will allow and propagate the growth and development of great people in society.

For example, in the family, we discover our identity. Beyond DNA, which we all secure from our family, we become stable and solid members of community because we know who we are. Society becomes unstable when people lose their sense of identity. Confusion and destruction arise when people fail to have a proper sense of identity.

Different things happen when people just can't answer the question; who am I? Am I colored? Am I a human being? And we also see many people confusing the world today. Some people don't know whether they are men or women; total confusion.

Psychologists always tell answer that question; who am I? But again, you notice that in the family, individuals develop a proper sense of belonging. This sense of belonging protects us from the turmoil of rejection and great pain that comes with it.

In Genesis chapter 4, Cain kills his brother Abel out of jealousy. God judges him and brings judgment and trouble on his family. In verses 13 and 14 Cain said to the Lord “My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me".

This is rejection and loss of a sense of belonging. It's part of the human nature to find peace and strength from the feeling of kinship. When you are among friends and among brothers, you feel safe and accepted.

We start with great confidence when we have that inner assurance that we have some where to find refuge when everything seems to fail in lives. So we rejoice in knowing that we are accepted for who we are, because we belong to that group of people (family). Because we belong to family, we are accepted for who we are.

But also we notice that in the family, individuals develop a sense of security in life and great families allow for the development of their inner confidence to face life with courage.

Whenever you encourage little kids to sing and dance and cheer them on, they gain and build up confidence to do even greater things in the future. Why? Because in a family, you are accepted as you are; you don't have to be any taller, you don't have to be any smaller, you don't have to be any richer or whatever else.

When individuals are secure in who they are, they are highly productive and they are useful right at home and in the society. Life is very difficult in the presence of insecure people; you can't compliment them, you cannot correct them, you cannot bless them. We can't grow and become the best that God wants us to be when we are insecure, when we can't receive good instruction.

Family is also the foundation for the development of our sense of purpose. Family helps us discover the answer to that critical question; what on earth am I here for? Why do I live? In the family, we are able to understand purpose and identify the areas where we need to bring glory and honor to God.

If we are purposeless, we will be hopeless. And so in family, you get to understand that there are greater things in life than simply chasing after money. Greater things in life than chasing after girls or chasing after men and other material things. It helps us to understand why we exist and enables live in the will of God.
 

The Family Shapes Character and Values

Family is the foundation for the development of our moral compass and core values. Family influences our belief systems. It determines our core values, behavior and culture as individuals.

You notice that there are unique things about every culture. There's truth in every culture, but there are also lies in every culture. We celebrate the unique things about culture. We uphold the truth, but reject every lie. 

In some societies, when you pluck your tooth, culture says hide the teeth and the rats will give you some cash. When you grow up, you realize that rats don't give money but rather their presence brings trouble in the house. So you choose do what is right; you tell the kids to pluck out their teeth and reward them for the effort.

If we are broken and crooked in our homes, society will eventually become broken and crooked because it's at home that we learn to tell the truth. It's at home that we learn to submit to authority. It's at home that we will learn to trust. It's at home that we learn to encourage other people. Friends, family is foundational.

We need to pay attention to the family because God is paying attention to the family. We that belong to Him, the people that are called by His name, and people that know the truth, we must pay attention to it.

In Genesis chapter 18, verses 18 and 19, we see God's heart for the family. It says, "Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.” 

God spoke to Abraham the individual and this extended to the family. And from the family, we have the tribes and the nation. And from that nation, we have the blessing all around the world. We're here today because one man was obedient to the Word of God. He directed his family in the way of the Lord.

And we are participating in that blessing today. Wouldn't it be so beautiful that 4,000 years after today, the name of your family will be remembered? Wouldn't it be so beautiful that as we will read history in the future, 5,000 years from today, they'll say there once lived a man or woman so and so (you) who was obedient to the Word of God? He guided his family in the ways of God. And God blessed him, blessed his children, his children's children to the 1,000th generation. That's beautiful.

God wants to do it for your family. God wants to do that in our generation. It's not something that we think would just happen for others. It doesn't matter in what state your family is in right now. God is looking for that one Abraham.
 

A Call to Action: Rebuilding the Family

Number one, it begins with repentance. Let's repent and turn away from every wicked way. Let's turn away from every wicked belief. Let's turn away from every wicked practice. And let's turn back to God with all our hearts. When we return to God with all our hearts, He will bless us.

He will hear our prayers and will stand in for us. He will move heaven and earth to see that what we ask of Him is done on our behalf.

Second, return to your family. Go back to your family. Pay attention to the state of your family. Take time to say, I will have a kind heart towards the family. Don't run away from unbelieving family members, God wants you to pay attention to them. Open your heart towards your immediate brothers and sisters, towards your father and mother, towards your immediate people. Return to your home, to your family. It's important.

Third, set your heart to rebuild your family. We need to recommit to rebuilding that which the enemy has destroyed. Nehemiah, though he was in a good place and didn't have to be concerned about his own people, he went back to his people and said, I will not leave them in this state. I will rebuild the wall. He's a good example to look up to.

Let's lay the foundations again for the purposes of God in our families. Let's do something that will begin to help our families know Christ Jesus. This may involve prayer, counselling, teaching, talking. Let's model Christ and rebuild our homes and families.

We cannot rebuild our homes without God. Psalm 127 verse 1 says; unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain... Unless God builds the household, the family, our attempts will be in vain.

We need to get back to God and say; God, what's your vision for my family? What's your purpose for my family? Will you allow me to be the vessel that you use to rebuild this family? 

I believe we have a window, an opportunity to bring healing to the city and to the nation by working towards the healing of our families. We have this window. So the question is, will you allow God to come into your family? Take a moment, even right now, and ask God to speak afresh of your family and just pray over your family.

Some families may be good and in order, Christ is at the center of that family, and we celebrate that. If that is the case, take a moment and thank God for His grace and goodness and pray that He continues to preserve your family in His steadfast mercies.

May God be the Lord over our families.