Family Playing House

Family

Playing House

Remember being a kid and playing house

It was a lot of fun

Pretending you were the parent

Acting out the joys of being loved by a child

Taking trips to imaginary places

Fixing meals and the best part was the mud pie

Marriage and family is not a game

Marriage is what God joins together and when we leave the altar

We must not walk out as two, but three

Your marriage, your family is not just about flesh and blood, it is about God

The old saying is true, “The closer you get to God the closer you get to each other”

God designed family not as a game we play

God designed family as a way of life with all the help we will need

Keep it simple… Turn to God   

Everything else will taste like mud pie

Playing House

Remember being a kid and playing house.

It was a lot of fun.

Pretending you were the parent.

Acting out the joys of being loved by a child.

Taking trips to imaginary places.

Fixing meals and the best part was the mud pie.

When you are playing house you

control the moment and the future.

And when you get tired of playing, you

pack up your dollies and do something else.

But the reality of family is not like that.

When Sandy and I got married we both

had childhood dreams we longed to live out.

One evening Sandy worked hard in the kitchen

 to please her husband coming home from work.

It was like a scene from Father Knows Best

(a time when television honored the family).

       

Sandy was full of pride and

excitement to bring me my supper.

As she watched me eat, I could tell something

was different, but what do I know I am a guy.

All day Sandy had dreams of this meal

and the pleasure I would have in eating it.

At the end of the meal, she was feeling a letdown

because I did not say a word about the meal.

She finally asked, “How was the food?”

I said, “It was good, but my mom

would make is with kidney beans.”

I had no idea I had given her a double insult.

In her mind what I said was…

It was just another meal and my

mother’s cooking is better than yours.

Now in my defense…

 I never meant to offend her and I had no

idea I was being set up because of the  

expectation she had built all day.

I never will forget that meal.

I will never forget seeing her joy

turn into hurt and anger.

By the time I saw I broke

her heart, it was too late.

These moments happen all the time in family.

Expectations are not met and we want to pack

up our dollies and go do something else.

Amazingly, God has made

family something we can’t quit.

We just can’t walk away.

I know some do quit because

they are hurt and can’t fix it.

But walking away does not

remove the reality of family…

It just stays dysfunctional.

I am not hear to beat up on

anyone who has been divorced.

I am just saying divorce never fixed a

family, it leaves the family dysfunctional.

I have to confess as I have counseled

many couples where I too felt helpless.

But I always felt helpless because one or

both were not committed to Godly change.

The Bible says…

 “If the unbeliever departs let them depart.”

1 Corinthians 7:15

You can’t hold someone back and live

in bondage in order to stay together.

We must remember people can be believers

in God and His Son Jesus who died on the

cross for our sins and still be an unbeliever.

They don’t believe in God’s Word

as something to guide their lives.

“Even the Devil believes and trembles.”

No spouse should ever encourage their mate to leave.

I have seen it too many times where the one

leaving was made out to be the bad guy

but in reality they were pushed out the door.

God sees it all and I will never be

able to judge matters perfectly.

But that is not to say we

cannot know what is right.

God’s Word deals with every issue we

face in life if we want to know the truth.

When I was a kid I thought if I could play dumb,

 I would be excused from my bad behavior.

We cannot play dumb…

In the past God overlooked such ignorance,

but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

Acts 17:30

I know this devotional is not socially acceptable.

But look at society.

Marriages and family are falling apart.

Why? Because we want to play house.

The reality of family is…

 You have to work at it and

you have to work on you.

The reality is…

 We are all like kids, we

don’t know what we are doing.

We all want what pleases us.

Marriage is dying to self.

It is a love that is unconditional.

Marriage is what God joins together.

 And when we leave the altar,

 we must not walk out as two, but three.

Your marriage, your family is not just

about flesh and blood, it is about God.

The old saying is true…

 “The closer you get to God

the closer you get to each other.”

God designed family not as a game we play.

God designed family as a way of

life with all the help we will need.

Keep it simple…

Turn to God!

    

Everything else will taste like mud pie.

Scripture Reading

1 Corinthians 7:12-16 NKJV

12 But to the rest I, not the Lord, say: If any brother has a wife who does not believe, and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her. 13 And a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. 15 But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart ; a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases. But God has called us to peace. 16 For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?

Acts 17:29-31 NIV

29 "Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone — an image made by man's design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance , but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."