Multitasking is handy

Strength to bear responsibility

Join together a male chauvinist, a feminist and some terrorists and you get an average family. Men and women are gifted differently on purpose so that they can work as a team to love each other and raise their children. The paradox of family is that there is unity and rivalry at the same time. Each member of a family is different which can be both helpful and annoying.

Men are strong, so that they can bear the responsibility of providing and protecting their families. Women are good at relationships, nurturing and multi-tasking. What attracts couples together can sometimes become a source of irritation. Add children (terrorists) into the mix and it can be hard to be a surviving family, which is a family that survives the tendency to be selfish.

Selfishness pulls members of a family away from each other. It is the source of our discontent; it makes us unappreciative of our family; and it makes us keenly aware of how others aren’t meeting our expectations. Selfishness turns our families into battlegrounds where we fight, intimidate and negotiate for what we want.

The antidote to the poison of selfishness is loving submission. God would have us be more concerned with caring for each other than caring for ourselves. He tells wives to respect their husband and husbands to love their wives (Ephesians 5:22-33). Children are told to honour their parents (Ephesians 6:1-4). Loving submission goes against our selfish instinct. Knowing, loving and trusting God enables members of families to learn to care for each other; it will bring peace where their has been war, healing where there are wounds, forgiveness where there is resentment, unity where there is loneliness. Loving submission is the only way to become a surviving family.

If you would like to know more then listen or watch the sermon “Be Free Part II” www.godsgap.net/family or you can get in touch with me by email.

the Rev (Chris Perona)

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