Title: Secrets of a Prosperous Family
As a child, I lived in a rural rural village. When I was in elementary school, when I woke up in the morning, there was a song I always heard from the local speaker. That song was called "Live Well". It was a song called "Live well, live well, let's live well once in a while... live well. live well". Our people tried to live a very good life through the Saemaul Undong. As a result, they have become a nation that is to some extent economically prosperous. At least if you have your own house and live without any problems, you will be in the top 10% of the world economically.
But is it a way to live well if you become financially prosperous? Not necessarily. Being financially better does not mean living well. On the contrary, there are people who are worse off. Because I have a lot of money, my husband has an affair. Children fight for property. There was a very wealthy neighbor in the countryside, and I had the experience of writing a letter to that aunt when I was young. When I got a lot of money, my husband got a wind and went to Seoul to set up a different family. It was a letter to change her husband's heart. I don't know how to write, so I often wrote letters to me, who lives next door, to write a script for me. What is the secret to a really prosperous family? There can be several principles. The Bible clearly tells us the secret.
Look at Ephesians 6:1-3. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long on the earth."
Where do you say there is a way to live long and prosper?
It is to obey your parents in the Lord. It is to honor your father and mother. In other words, it means to be filial. It means to serve your parents well. It is a message to make the hearts of parents happy. That is the secret to living well. Think about it. A family that does not show filial piety to their parents Is a family where there is always family strife to be a family that is prosperous?
Then, specifically, how should we be filial?
Would it be possible to set and observe Mother's Day like this? It is said that in our country, the winter solstice day is Mother's Day, and it is said that "solar solstice" is given to mothers to pray for a long life as the days get longer. Since 1956, under the influence of the United States, May 8 is celebrated as Mother's Day. Then, fathers became alienated, and since 1973, it has been observed as Mother's Day. In the US, it is said that it started on the second Sunday in May when a woman gave out carnations to all members of the church in remembrance of her mother. The third Sunday in June will be Father's Day, the first Monday of July will be Grandmother's Day, October 26 will be Mother-in-law's Day, and now it will also be Father's Day. Are you doing filial piety by making and keeping these days?
Today, I want to learn that method through a man named Joseph.
1. Even if the parents do not have conditions to filial piety, they must filial piety for one reason as a parent.
1) Joseph's father, Jacob, did not have the conditions to be filial to his respectable children.
He was the one who cheated on his brother Esau's birthright with a bowl of red bean porridge. The birthright was taken away by unfair means. He deceived his father and was blessed. Is that all? He had four wives. And two cousins and his maids. At this point, how can a normal person speak with shame about his father and his family? Would you not resent your father? Most people will build a wall and live. That doesn't mean his father has a lot of inheritance now, so he's not in a position to inherit. If I had a lot of money, I would pretend to be filial. But now he is not so rich because of the famine.
2) Despite this, Joseph is very filial to his father.
But what about Joseph? Look at the Bible. Genesis 50:14 says that Joseph buried his father. It is said that he took care of his father until he died. Some people would hate to see a father like this. But Joseph never resented his father. What do you do when you hear from your brothers that your father is alive? Look at Genesis 45:9 verse 11. He tells him to come to Joseph without delay. ?쏷here are still five years of famine, and there I will provide for my father.
Joseph puts up his chariot and goes up to Goshen to meet his father and weep (Gen 46:29). And he made them stand before Pharaoh (Genesis 47:7) and bless Pharaoh. And he took care of his father and took care of him (Genesis 47:12).
3) Filial piety is a command. We should be filial to keep God's commands, not to look at the conditions of our parents.
I saw an article about a child named Cheon Sae-rom, who received the Children's Day Award in the field of filial piety and etiquette on Children's Day. Saerom's father, Cheon Byung-eun (?껆궠?.42), suffered from glaucoma at the age of 20, and his mother, Lee Mi-ra (?롧풆獰?39), was blind when he was 10 years old due to a fever. It is said that he was upset countless times whenever his friends made fun of him for being the ?쐂aughter of the blind.??But now, it is said that they proudly introduce their parents by holding on to their passing friends. He lives with his younger brothers Seulgi (9), Sam (7), and Songi (5) living a religious life and living as the eyes of his parents. He said that his hope was to be a pianist. The reason was to show parents a brighter world through music that contains hope and dreams.
You must have read all the articles of Oh Kang-min, who recently entered Korea University but gave up for his father. Because of his father's business failure, his house was put up for auction and there was no way to pay for the operation, so he decided to use the 2.6 million won he had prepared as tuition for treatment, and he cut off his liver and gave it to his father. He said, "When I gave up university admission, my heart ached, but I decided that there was nothing more important than my father's life. Upon learning of this fact, the school made him a special admission as a four-year scholarship student, filial piety.
On the other hand, in Gangdong-gu, Seoul, a grandson beat an old woman who rebuked him for being noisy, and in Hongseong, South Chungcheong Province, there was a son who killed his father who rebuked him for not cleaning.
In Ansan, there were children who quarreled with their mothers and killed their fathers because their fathers beat their mothers. On the other hand, in Chilgok, my grandmother was beaten to death because she had dementia. Even in the past, in ancient Rome, it is said that they drowned their elderly parents by going to a bridge called depontani. It is said that on some islands in the South Pacific, parents who were struggling to support were placed on a palm tree and rocked from below. It is said that the Xiongnu put their parents in sacks, hung them on a tree, and shot them to death, and it is said that killing them all at once was considered filial piety. In Korea, too, there is the Gyoryeo funeral method, so food was placed in the grave of the parents and buried alive.
The Bible says
Honor your father and mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you (Ex 20:12)
You shall honor your father and mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and prosper in the land the LORD your God is giving you (Deuteronomy 5:16).
This means that our family is well and our life is well here.
If you curse, disobey, ridicule and disrespect your parents, you will be given a terrible punishment.
Whoever curses his father or mother must be put to death (Ex 21:17).
The eyes of those who ridicule their fathers and do not want to obey their mothers will be pecked out by ravens of the valley and eaten by eagles (Proverbs 30:17).
How scary is that? These words are not human words. It is the word of God.
2. No matter how unfavorable the environment and conditions are, you must be filial to your parents by realizing the vision you have been given.
1) Joseph's home environment is an environment where he can only despair.
(1) There is one father and four mothers.
She is a small mother and an aunt. It is a species that is difficult to call a mother. And I have 10 half-brothers. How complicated is this assumption?
(2) Mothers compete with each other in order to receive more love from their father. (Genesis 30:1) Imagine. They are my uncle's daughters. He is the younger brother. However, he took his two brothers as wives. That was not enough, so he took other servants as wives. Are you done with that? Abandon the race to have children in order to be loved by each other. Look at Genesis 30:1.
"When Rachel saw that she could bear no sons by Jacob, she envied her brother and said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I will die."
He said he would commit suicide if he didn't have a son. A family full of envy and jealousy.
(3) The brothers are jealous and jealous. What would we do if we were in a family like this? Can you have a vision? You will live with a sense of inferiority every day. It's a shame for someone you know to come to your house. You will despair.
2) Joseph had a vision. And I made it.
No matter how much the hyungs hate him, he had a strong vision to speak his dreams openly in front of them. It means that the sheaves of the brothers in the field bow down to the inner altar. The sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bow down to me. This is the vision he has. Our home is not heaven. The greatest filial piety is to honor the parents, and the next thing to do is to take care of the parents without abusing them.
3) Most families today have problems. But we shouldn't give up on life because of that problem. You have to have a vision and make that vision come true.
It may not be as complicated as Joseph's family, but similar problems exist in families. Parents' divorce, father's drunkenness, parents' ignorance, inferior job, financial difficulties, siblings' envy, distrust, disconnection of family conversation, parents' coercion to study, interference, etc.
Even so, there are things we shouldn't be. Vision. It is to fulfill the will of God who made me to be on this earth. It is fulfilling the mission God has given me. No matter what our family is, no matter what our mother and father are. It doesn't matter what kind of person our sisters, sisters, brothers and sisters are. The question is whether I have a vision or not. People with dreams will not perish. A person with a dream will never be discouraged no matter how stormy the storm may come. Look at Joseph.
Even though he was raised from death by his older brothers, he was sold as a slave for life, perhaps more unbearable than death. They were also sold to merchants from other countries, not their own, with the same culture and customs. Not long ago, he was treated like a prince of a country. But how desperate and desperate would you be if you suddenly became a slave?