The Family: Fortress or Facade?

TEXT: Joshua 24:14-15

Topic: THE FAMILY - A FORTRESS OR A FACADE?

Pastor Bobby Earls, First Baptist Church of Icard, May 14, 2000

A 6th grade teacher gave her class a writing assignment. They were to write a paper based upon the two words, “I wish…” She thought they might write something like, “I wish I had a bicycle, “ or “I wish I had a T.V.” Instead, 20 of the 30 students in the class wrote something about the family.

One boy wrote, “I wish my parents wouldn’t fight and I wish that my father would come back.” Another said, “I wish that my mother didn’t have a boyfriend.” Another said, “I wish that I could get straight A’s so that my father would love me.” Finally, one wrote, “I wish I had one mom and one dad so the other kids wouldn’t make fun of me. I have three moms and three dads and they botch up my life.”

Six Qualities of Strong Families:

1. Commitment - A Sense of being a Team.

Motto: Family First!

Commitment begins BEFORE marriage.

Glue Needed in the Home

1) Spiritual Bonding (When you pray together, go to church together)

2) Emotional Bonding (There when your family needs you)

3) Physical Bonding (Let your kids see you show your love for each other)

4) Mental Bonding

2. Doing Things Together

Quantity Time vs. Quality time

Quantity Time is waiting for the magic moment to happen.

Quality Time is making the magic moment happen.

3. Appreciation - Expressing Appreciation to One Another

Someone said, “Home is a place people go when they are tired of being nice to other people.”

4. Communication - Families that are strong have the ability to Communicate.

The Maxwell Card - John Maxwell carries a card everyday on which he writes down things that happen during the day which he thinks his wife would enjoy hearing about.

5. Coping with Problems - the Ability to Cope

Statements About Problems and Families

1) We all have problems

2) Not all families respond the same way (Chinese word for crisis same as opportunity)

3) Our response to the problems will either break it up or make it up

6. Spiritual Health - Strong Families are committed to spiritual values

Secular survey - one of the strong components of this survey was that these successful families all had a high level of commitment to spiritual values in their families.

Another survey:

1) If kids grow up in a home where both parents attend church on a regular basis, then 72 % will grow up as adults and still attend church.

2) If only the dad attends church, 55 % still remain faithful

3) If only the mom attends regularly, 15 %.

4) If neither attend regularly then it drops to only 6 %

JOSHUA 24:14-15 “14 “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.””

Joshua 24:31 “Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the Lord did for Israel.”