Family Building Family and Security

Family

Building Family and Security

 Two questions that are very important to answer properly

What is your idea of building a family?

What is your idea of security?

Let Psalms 127 and 128 shape your idea of building family and security

Psalms 127:1

Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.

Building Family and Security

Two questions that are very

important to answer properly…

What is your idea of building a family?

What is your idea of security?

I was born while my parents were at seminary.

I remember being at church

where my dad pastored.

I was the first born and then

came my two brothers and a sister.

Things were tough and my Dad had to

work to support the ministry and his family.

My parents loved the Lord all their lives.

When I was starting the first

grade, my parents got a divorce.

I grew up accepting family as broken.

Mom worked and dad struggled to

pay the $40 a month child support.

In those early child hood years when we would

see my dad, he would take us for a short time.

I remember him taking us to McDonalds

and buying a fry and a milkshake that my

other three siblings and I would share.

After my dad started to get

on his feet, he remarried.

His new wife had 4 children and

then together they had two more.

Sandy grew up in a similar family.

Sandy had an older sister and

then her parents got a divorce.

Sandy’s mom got married a couple more

times, and in all that came another sister.

Her dad remarried a woman with 2 kids

and then together they had 4 more.

I can remember as a boy in the midst of the

blended family thinking about family.

Accepting what I had,

 but wanting something better.

Sadly, Sandy and my families

up bringing is too normal.

Sandy and I both have one very important

thing going for us that many

in broken homes do not have.

Sandy’s parents and mine, loved the

Lord through it all until the end.

Our parents loved us, too.

When Sandy and I got married, we did not

have good models to build our family from.

We did not know how to

provide security for our family.

But what we did have was a love

for each other and a love for God.

We started out with the realization

that God brought us together.

We were determined to give

God our lives, marriage and family.

We started our marriage with reading God’s

Word every night and praying together.

Which we still do today.

We have had times where that has got

disrupted, but we have keep the course.

We, like our parents, had our struggles

and wondered if life might be better apart.

But in those times, when we might have

found it hard to talk to each other…

 We could never not talk to God, who

always humbled our hearts and challenged

us with commitment to work it out.

Psalms 127 has been a favorite of mine…

   

  Unless the LORD builds the house,

its builders labor in vain.

Sandy and I have left the blue prints and

architectural design in the hands of the Lord.

In all honesty, we had to learn to read

and understand biblical blue prints.

We would never claim we

are master family builders.

If you have ever used a hammer and nails, you

probably know it is not the thumb nail you hit.

And in building our family, I have

hit my thumb nail too many times.

The pain of making mistakes

is too real in our family.

But God has always healed my mistakes.

The word house in Psalms 127 is the

same word for family in the Hebrew.

When we look to God to build our family

He not only shows us how to do it…

 But when we do it wrong

(and we will do it wrong)

 He shows us how to correct it.

The second thing I love about Psalms 127 is…

     

Unless the LORD watches over the city,

the watchmen stand guard in vain.

 When our parents celebrated their 75^th

and 80th birthdays we made Family Trees.

When you start adding up the children,

grandchildren and great grandchildren…

You can see it does not take too many

generations to become the size of a city.

As our children grow older and they

leave the home like an arrow from a bow,

 we have little to no idea the target they will hit.

How will we protect them

when they are out of our sight?

This Psalm tells us to trust

the Lord for that as well.

 

Just like building the family, you did the

work as the Lord instructed, so is security.

You will still be used by the Lord.

So pray for your children and the

unborn that will continue your family.

Leave memories of your trust in the Lord.

Write those memories down.

 One of the most common things I have seen

at the time of death of a parent or grandparent…

 Is the family looking through their Bible

for notes that reveal their walk with God.

Psalms 127 warns us of the traps of vain living…

In vain you rise early and stay up late,

toiling for food to eat —

for he grants sleep to those he loves

Raising a family without the Lord’s

direction is vain and painful.

The rest of Psalms 127 and 128

speaks of the blessing the Lord wants

you and your family to have…

 Fruit and Prosperity 

It is true…

Blessed are all who fear the LORD,

who walk in his ways.

All of us have the same opportunity.

Your family history, your upbringing, even

your failures in marriage and parenting can’t

stop you from walking in His ways today.

  

Walking in His ways today will change

the future of the family and the city your

family will become in the next generations.

Scripture Reading

Psalm 127 NIV

Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. 2 In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat — for he grants sleep to those he loves.

3 Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him. 4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. 5 Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate.

Psalms 128 NIV

A song of ascents.

Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways. 2 You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. 3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your sons will be like olive shoots around your table. 4 Thus is the man blessed who fears the LORD.

5 May the LORD bless you from Zion all the days of your life; may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem, 6 and may you live to see your children's children.

Peace be upon Israel.