Last week my dad asked my mother and me , to tell him a good example of a family from the bible. After our two minute mental search through the bible, we found that there were no perfect families in the bible. Its strange isnt it.... a book that is so full of wisdom and has some words of encouragement for every situation in life, that one could possibly think off, has not added an example of "a perfect family".
Pondered this thought over some days and realised that, maybe god didnt put an example of a perfect family as there isnt any. Maybe in all his infinite wisdom knew that, its not possible. Maybe he knew that as individuals we fall and fail so many times, that if there was a family comparison, we would have crumbled and crumpled under that pressure.
We have to compare our lives with Jesus, and falling short would be an understatement of enormous magnitude. But yet we run the race and fight the good fight. We are to put the yoke of guilt, shame, sin onto the cross, but we seldom do it fully, we always keep a little of all of that within us, so that we dont feel guilty about not feeling guilty. This slows us down, frustrates us, and we end up putting alot of pressure on ourselves. Now all that, we feel when we fall short of the glory as Individuals, imagine if we knew we failed as a family, .
As a family what would define failure (maybe divorce, but its the failure of marriage/relationship.. I dont know) is it a kid rebelling?kid marrying a person from another caste, creed, country??? not listening to parents??? what constitutes a failed family? Who decides whether the family is a success or a failure??Non-doting parents??? Parents who are semi-jailers???
Random thoughts on these...
Its amazing that the bible talks about curses and blessings going to be passed on from generation to generation.Eve's disobedience and Abraham's mistake.
Families are punished and families are blessed in the bible.
Individuals were more focused on than families (David, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Ruth, Esther)
But god said Be fruitful and multiply, have a companion.......
Special chapter on how to raise a family is not there
But how to treat Husband, wife, child are stated....
Thats what I love about my god, it is that he has given freedom to raise a family as we like, with simple adherence to rules like "love her/him" "dont anger child" "child honor parents", in such simplicity he's put boundary lines as well as immense space to raise a family,
My god, is beyond words... only he can come up with concepts such as grace, mercy... love and family.... Think about it, without such concepts... what would our world be like. To think the creator has all of it and we have barely ventured or fathomed its awesomeness.