Kristin Kluck reminds women about the tendency to take a good thing – family – and make it an ultimate thing – an idol.
That is the spirit of the age we live in. But Jesus demands that he come before family (Matt 10:34ff, 12:46ff, 19:29ff, Luke 11:27-28, Luke 14:26ff.)
Kristin writes:
Isn’t family still a gift, not a god? Isn’t it still something that can be elevated into first place, which should be reserved for God alone? I think we see the problem in our reactions to the hardships of family life—fractured relationships with parents, wayward or difficult children, marriages that are anything less than Christian-movie quality. We take it personally. We feel somehow personally affronted or shafted by God, as though the Perfect Family were our birthright as Christians. And when I say “we,” I mean “I.” It’s a personal battle, waged mostly silently by other families and friends.
Churches encourage our husbands daily to not make idols out of their careers, and to not look at porn. But how are we, as wives, encouraging and exhorting one another not to make idols out of perhaps our greatest gifts: our families?
If you are struggling with striving after “The Perfect Family” or even if you don’t think you are, this is an excellent article to pray though.
