Building A Christian Home

Psalm 127 :1a : “ Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it”.

 There are many books written every year on how to have the perfect marriage or how to raise your children and how to build a perfect happy family but if they are not founded on Gods’ principles and if it is not based on the spiritual values its only paper. Family at first place is the spiritual institution for every person, it infact is the manifestation of the relationship between God and His people, Christ and the Church. A Christ- centric love between the husband and the wife is the most essential ideal in building a strong Christian family. We may have a house as big as a mansion but that isn’t a home if the love of God does not abide in us and if there is no peace and forbearance among the members of the family in speech and in action. It is the hearts of the people in it that makes it a home. It is the people in it that creates mutual kindness towards bearing each other’s burdens, forgiving one another and tolerating each other’s limitations and weakness, which exalt the soul and make the family life healthier and strong. Accordingly as these ideals are striven for, and attained, will the true home be realized.

 Making God the anchor of our family:

As the bible tells us in Gen 1:27 ,“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them”. We are called the children of God. Thus, God has to be the architect of the family. The architect is the one that has the blue prints and lays everything out when we build a house and we fully entrust him until the completion of the structure of the house. Therefore, in order to complete our home we need to submit our plans to Him. Give Him our children, our marriage, our relationship and our burdens. We might have failed to change them but God is an able God who can change, stop trying to do it in your strength.

 Building a strong spiritual family on the principles of God:

After submitting all the plans to the chief architect, the strongest foundation for a good healthy family is “the word of God”. Commending the home to God.  We see it in Mat 7: 24-25 how a wise man builds a good foundation. It says, “Whosoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a man who build his house on the rock. And the rains descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall because it was founded on the rock”.  If we establish our family and our home in the word of God, the problems of this world will not effect us the way it effect the world. Tell your children how important they are in the family. Teach them that they can do all things in Christ no matter how hard the circumstances may seem to be.  The Bible has many instances of men, like that of Samuel, who have been trained for great parts in the world in a religious household. The old proverb has it, "Like father, like son." If God is honored by the parents and the home commended to Him, the children will be quite sure to honor Him also. Bring up your children "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4). Have them ready to meet Christ at any time (Mark 13:34-37).

Role of the Father and Mother:  The very beginning of every Christian home is in a supreme affection between the two, a man and a woman. In the various stage and transition of married life, and in the upbringing of children, in grounding of family life, the bond which needs to be strengthened, and the duty which needs to be fulfilled, is that of love. Love can alone carry husband and wife over the more difficult phases in life. Because a supreme love settles all troubles (1 Corinthians, chapter 13). Paul says, "Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for it" (Ephesians 5:25-33; Colossians 3:18,19). "Let every one of you so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband" (Ephesians 5:33).  Here, Paul urged both the husband and wife to love each other with a whole heart, forgiving each other and reconciling and comprising through thick and thin in Christ alone.

Conclusion

Building a Christian home can be made easy only through God and it starts from our hearts. Even though we will face difficult times yet we need to keep moving through Him. It will take time in constructing but we should always remember that God himself is the designer and He alone will help us in building a Christian Home. Having Jesus Christ as our guest in our homes will make it complete and secure. He wants us to welcome him in our homes anytime. There can be no really deep and abiding love without Him. Jesus Christ came to earth with a purpose to save souls and build more Christian homes. Let Christ be our Special guest while building our home.