“What is at the center of your family?”
This was the question we asked this past weekend, and it has been haunting me all week. If you were with us in worship or joined us online you may recall me mentioning that in some ways I am not looking forward to to this Frantic Family series. It isn’t that I don’t think it is a good use of time. I do think it’s perfectly timed with the holidays quickly approaching. The rub is that I know I have to practice what I preach (literally).
So this week I have been asking myself “What is at the center of our family?”
Looking at the week and the obligations we have it could seem to be a number of things. The center of our family there is so much more than what our calendars say about center. They may be a clue, but also our finances, conversations, motives, and what we say “no” to are all indicators of our center.
The point of last weekend’s conversation was to not settle for a sprinkling of Jesus here and there, but to recover the cross and place God back at the center of our families. No matter what our families look like, or if your family is made up of blood relations or inseparable friends, we need something that will stabilize the “franticness” of our lives. With God at the center we do not only have stability, but an example through Christ to show us what loving selflessly looks like. God is never weary after a long day, but is always pulling for us. The cross, may get buried under the piles of paperwork, sports uniforms and clutter of our lives, but it’s power has not diminished one bit in over 2000 years.
Keeping God at the center of our families means:
- We need to be in connection with the center. This might mean weekend worship, or a small group, it might be studying your Bible or taking time every day to pray for guidance. It will look different for each one of us, but we cannot rely on the stability of the center if it had been cut out of our daily routine (think donuts for you visual folk)
- God is the only one who can redeem and sustain us. Someone else cannot sustain you fully in healthy ways, but you can hand over all of your drama and baggage to God and there is still comfort and grace left over.
- Own your center: So if God is the one who redeems and sustains be bold in the promise that God has in store and realize everything doesn’t depend on you.
What does this look like in the real world:
Well here are some reflections from the Bishop home this week. First, our calendar didn’t change too much, but the motives did. Well we were late to school one morning because we couldn’t get out of the house for some reason. Rather than stressing, I asked “what was at the center?” I know the center of our family is not getting to school on time, and it was more important for me to care for my girls so we could all (even the teachers interacting with my daughter) be successful. Conversations have been different. At night time, in a ploy to squeeze out a few more minutes of staying up the girls ask questions. They know that God questions are of great importance because both parents are pastors, so this week questions about the other people on the cross beside Jesus came up, and how we are forgiven (she likes to keep it light before bedtime :-). Rather than telling the 1st grader to go to bed, we had conversation about what is at the center of our family. Remembering that I have been called to model and pass on what is at the center of our family, I asked more questions rather than lecture about the questions she raised. Sure we didn’t get to all of the answers, and really have more questions than when we started, but that is what we are called to do (ask, seek and knock)
So, what is at the center of your family?
- In what ways to you keep God at the center?
- How are you working to uncover or move God more toward the middle?
- What is the biggest struggle you have with this question?