A Home God Can Bless

[Darryl Thompson]

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 Ellen G. White Estate, Devotional for July 5
 Visit us at http://www.whiteestate.org
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A Home God Can Bless

For I know him, that he will command his children and his
household after him, and they shall keep the way of the
Lord, to do justice and judgment. Gen. 18:19.

In God’s sight, a man is just what he is in his family. The
life of Abraham, the friend of God, was signalized by a
strict regard for the word of the Lord. He cultivated home
religion. The fear of God pervaded his household. He was
the priest of his home. He looked upon his family as a
sacred trust. His household numbered more than a thousand
souls, and he directed them all, parents and children, to
the divine Sovereign. He suffered no parental oppression on
the one hand or filial disobedience on the other. By the
combined influence of love and justice, he ruled his
household in the fear of God, and the Lord bore witness to
his faithfulness.

He “will command . . . his household.” There would be no
sinful neglect to restrain the evil propensities of his
children, no weak, unwise, indulgent favoritism, no
yielding of his conviction of duty to the claims of
mistaken affection. Abraham would not only give right
instruction, but he would maintain the authority of just
and righteous laws.

How few there are in our day who follow this example. On
the part of too many parents there is a blind and selfish
sentimentalism, which is manifested in leaving children
with their unformed judgment and undisciplined passions, to
the control of their own will. This is the worst cruelty to
the youth and a great wrong to the world. Parental
indulgence causes disorder in families and in society. It
confirms in the young the desire to follow inclination,
instead of submitting to the divine requirements.

Parents and children alike belong to God to be ruled by
Him. By affection and authority combined, Abraham ruled his
house. God’s word has given us rules for our guidance.
These rules form the standard from which we cannot swerve
if we would keep the way of the Lord. God’s will must be
paramount. The question for us to ask is not: What have
others done? What will my relatives think? or, What will
they say of me if I pursue this course? but, What has God
said? Neither parent nor child can truly prosper in any
course excepting in the way of the Lord.

>From Devotional: Our Father Cares, pp. 173, 174.