Dad, do you have a vision for your family in the coming year?
When God made the family, he started by giving it a man – to lead it, to direct it, and to guide it.
This wasn’t by accident, but by design. God knew that a family would need loving leadership and strong guidance to navigate through the tough waters of family life and growth.
But even though God gave the family a man, unfortunately, we still see many families who are lacking in confident male leadership. Some men have abandoned ship, others are physically or emotionally absent, and some sadly just don’t care. My heart goes out to all of the woman who are pulling double duty out of necessity to provide the leadership their family needs.
However, if you are a man, and God has given you a family, you need to consider them as one of your highest callings in life – the call to be a husband to your wife and a father to your precious children. God has called you to lead, guide, and direct them.
And even more than that, God has called you to have a vision for them and their future.
QUESTION…
Do you have a vision for your family?
This past weekend, we sat down with our kids and I shared my vision for our family in the coming year. And it was a fun and engaging time of discussing what our goals would look like.
Have you prayerfully considered what God would have you to do, and where God would have you to go as a family in 2022?
You do realize that every single day, you are building something, right? You are building not just a family, but a future. You are building the very foundation of hearts and lives that will one day build that same foundation for future generations to come.
If I were to ask you, “What is your vision for your family?”, could you describe it, or articulate anything specific about it?…
Yes, I know you want to have a great marriage and godly children. But have you carefully thought out any of the details of making that vision a reality?
- When you look at your relationship with your wife, how do you want it to be different a year from now… or 5 years from now?
- When you look at your children, what things would you like to see in their lives and character in the coming year? What about 10 years from now?
- And what are you currently doing to help them to get there?
Are you taking spiritual leadership, headship, and overall responsibility of your family’s direction and future seriously? Or are you just coasting through as if everything will just fall into place and work out simply because you love God and have good intentions?
MEN, LET’S NOT BE NAIVE…
Godly families don’t happen by accident. Godly families are built by Godly men – Men who are willing to do the hard work and pursue the sometimes painful process it takes to see their God-given family vision accomplished.
Have you ever seen an artist’s rendering of a building that’s not yet been built? Obviously, someone had a vision in mind of what the end product would look like when it was completed. They gave careful consideration to the many details that would be required to make their vision a reality.
The same can be applied to our vision as husbands and fathers. Sometimes our hard work can seem more worth the effort if we keep in our sights a vision of the end product that we’re striving to build.
Seeing that vision become a reality might include any of the following:
- putting date night back into your weekly or monthly schedule
- implementing a family altar into your home of prayer and spiritual conversation
- opening up better ongoing doors of communication with your wife and children
- getting consistent in your discipline and expectations
- getting on the same page as husband and wife about the vision for your children’s future
- giving faithful church attendance the priority it deserves
- starting a Bible study with one of your kids, or having some of those difficult conversations
- scheduling time to simply have fun together as a family
- saying no to other things and people, so that you can say yes to the things and people that matter most
WILL THE COMING YEAR LOOK ANY DIFFERENT THAN THE LAST?…
How do you want 2022 to look different for your family than the previous year?
In what areas of your family life or marriage do you feel that God has been speaking to you and prompting you about recently?
What do you need to implement starting today to help your family accomplish your God-given vision?
Even if its just one thing, take a step in the right direction to implement it into your family life today.
Because men, no one else is going to step up to make your vision for your family a reality. And honestly, no one else has the responsibility to.
Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4
