Title: Happy Family-Proverbs 15:15-17
Contents
God created us to live happily and gave us the most precious gift: a home. The family is the mysterious cradle of God's will. We experience God at home. You will come to know the image of God through the Father. As you receive mother's love, you feel the breath of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. God's blessings toward us will come through our families. The first miracle that Jesus performed when he came was also the restoration of the family. He changed a family that was worried about running out of wine into a happy one. You should pay close attention to the fact that the target you worked for was not a nation, but rather a family. The church also started at home. This shows that the home and the church are on a common ground.
The text shows us what a happy family looks like. "It is better to have a family at least to fear the Lord than to be very rich and troubled. It is better to eat vegetables and to love one another than to eat fat cattle and hate one another." Here we find the prototype of a happy family. What is the secret to a happy family?
First, we must fear God
Young, a black slave in Virginia, was ignorant and poor. But he had unshakable faith. He had 7 siblings. Of course, I didn't have enough money to educate them enough. So they had family worship and kept saying the same thing. No matter where I read the Bible, there was only one sermon. “The head of our household is Jehovah God. If we believe in God and live according to His Word, our descendants will be blessed. If we do not believe in God, we will never escape from slavery.” Although he was not physically a slave in chains through emancipation, he had a philosophy that economic and social incompetence would inevitably lead to slavery. Later, I thanked God when I saw my seven children leading a leadership life in the community they lived in. "God, thank you for not disappointing my faith." A happy family was created when it was founded on the fear of God.
This is verse 16 of the text. “It is better to have at least the fear of the Lord than to be greatly rich and to be afflicted.” It belongs to God who made and rules the world. Therefore, fear of God is the key to happiness. Because we live with God, who is the source of blessing. When creating human beings, God made them happy in their relationship with God. Therefore, no one can enjoy true happiness until their relationship with God is restored.
There is a saying called 家和萬事成. If the family is harmonious, it means that everything is going well. However, it is not so easy to achieve family harmony. Because it is difficult to gather family opinions. However, when the whole family has the faith to fear God, they can become one even though there are various differences between them. Even if we have different personalities and different tastes, we can achieve unity in the faith of serving God. Therefore, the foundation of a happy family is based on the fear of God. We have a responsibility to create happy families. I hope that you do not worry about the environment, do not turn unhappy circumstances into your destiny, and create a happy family by fearing God. Like Joshua, I hope that you will build a happy family with the firm belief that “only me and my household will serve Jehovah God.”
Second, have fun
What should a family that believes in Jesus rejoice and rejoice with? We must only rejoice in Jehovah God. We must become a family that has the joy of Prophet Habakkuk. Habakkuk 3:17 and 18. “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, I will rejoice in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. ." Do you want to have a happy family? May you enjoy the joy and pleasure that has already been given to you. No matter what difficulties and temptations come, please do not deprive yourself of the joy that comes from God's grace and the joy that comes from the salvation of Jesus Christ.
Third, we must love each other.
Choi, who had been blind all his life, visited the hospital. I've lived my life until now, with a gray head without being able to see, but I wanted to go to the hospital just in case and ask if surgery to open my eyes was possible. A few days later, I got a call from the hospital. "Rejoice! Surgery can bring your eyes back. Come back even tomorrow!" Choi was thrilled. However, Choi did not go to the hospital. It's not because I don't have to pay for surgery, nor because I don't want to get my sight back. It's because my wife is obsessed with it. Choi went to the hospital the next day and said he would give up the operation. The doctor tilted his head and said, "Are you afraid?" Says. Then Choi said in a calm voice. "I have a wife with burns. If I get two eyes, I'll see her ugly face? Then I'm sure she won't be at ease. So I'm giving up the operation. It's a bit uncomfortable, but I'm just blind for the rest of my life." I will stay with you." The doctor's eyes lit up at Choi's words. A heart to cherish and consider others more than myself, that is the beginning of love.
This is verse 17 of the text. “It is better to eat vegetables and to love one another than to eat fat cattle and hate one another.” It means that happiness does not consist in having many or few things, not in what we eat, but in loving each other. Where there is love, there is happiness even in poverty, and there is overwhelming gratitude and joy even in poor food. If there is true love between husband and wife and children grow up feeling the devoted love of parents, then that family is a happy family.
Love is a relationship, not a condition. I love you because I am a father, I love you because I am a wife, and I love you because I am a child. A home is not a place to live alone, but a place to live together. So, everyone has different opinions and different values. You may develop feelings of hatred. However, if you look at the conditions, you cannot love, but you must love with the love of Christ. This is because God did not love us based on conditions. No matter how ignorant they are, they are my parents. No matter how hard you study, you are my child. No matter how poor you are, you are my husband, and no matter how poor you are, you are my wife. We must love our family first.
It's time for the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. After serving as a prime minister, she returned home and went to the market with a basket to prepare the family's food. He also cleaned and sewed the children's clothes by hand. When her daughter got a room in the city of London, she was the mother who came to paint by hand. Before she became Prime Minister, she was a faithful mother to her family. As a wife and mother, she was a leader who led the family creating happiness that builds family order and harmony.
A happy family should be the place you want to return to and find after a day's work. A happy family can lead a happy life. When you have a happy family, you can live in a difficult world and win. In the name of the Lord, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will become all the blessed saints who build a happy family by loving each other and enjoying the joy that has already been given to you through faith in the fear of God.