Gospel Reflections #209: Our Families Built by God love

Psalm 128:3 "The wife is at the back of the house, a grapevine bearing rich bunches. The children around the table are young olive trees."

How wonderful it would be to have a home filled with God's love!

But in this sinful world, there is no such thing as a perfect or flawless family.

Rather than focusing our efforts on creating the ideal family, I think it is more important that the family be a place where each family member can vent and receive their weaknesses and ugliness.

I feel that the family is a place where we can train ourselves to accept the ugliness as a reality, rather than putting a lid on it.

This may sound like a training ground for patience, but God always accepts us in this way.

If even one person in the family has experienced this, he or she can become God's light.

It is said that children grow up watching their parents' backs.

By remembering what God has done for us Christians, we will come to know Him better, and by knowing and fellowshipping with Him, we will grow up as His children.

We can build our families by being filled with God's love. We do not have love. We can pour God's love into our families because we are connected to God.

Before we spend energy to build a good family and our minds and bodies become exhausted, let us go to God and ask Him to fill our hearts with His love.

Then God's love will flow into the family.

God's love is mutual respect, mutual acceptance, acceptance of differences, mutual compensation, mutual forgiveness of weaknesses, mutual encouragement, mutual joy, and mutual tears.

God is more pleased that we come to Him to rest and enjoy ourselves than that each member of our family is not great or not doing so well.

I believe that God builds our families by sharing and rejoicing in the love we receive from Him.

We can't do it by ourselves, but there is nothing God can't do!

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This Gospel Reflections page is written by Masae San, a devoted student of the Bible who passionately embraces the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She shares her daily reflections on the Gospels as a way to reach out to others and spread the message of Jesus. We're sharing her message here so that you too can experience the joy that comes from the Gospel that has filled her heart.