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family moments :: Wednesday E-Devotion

Proverbs 18:22 (nasb) --- He who finds a wife finds a good thing And obtains favor from the LORD.
 
Proverbs 22:6 (nasb) --- Train up a child in the way he should go,Even when he is old he will not depart from it.
 
BIG STATEMENT: without my family, I die.  Think about it.
 
Got blessed me with a great wife.  Honestly, sometimes I don't give that fact enough weight.  Another huge deal are these 3 little people God placed in our home.  Honestly, sometimes I don't put enough into them.  Think about it.
 
When it comes time in my life for Easter and the events at church, the race and all it takes to make Raceway Ministry do an awesome job, I have to reflect on what it does to my family.  For way to long pastors and ministers have said that we would sacrifice everything for God and the church.  That even meant family.  Boys and girls, that is wrong.  Just plain wrong.  Without my family, I die.
 
Yep.  Sometimes they make me want to scream or get angry.  Sometimes I want to sit and cry.  Then at other times, many other times I want to grab them up (my wife and kids) and never stop loving on them.  Think about it.  Family moments are awesome, and I don't have them enough.  That has been a choice.  A hard lesson to learn.  Do you get it?  I am pouring out my heart.
 
I love my family.  My precious wife foes the second and third mile to help me and to love me (often I miss recognizing her, and that is wrong).  My kids often get the leftovers cause I am exhausted after a big weekend or a trip away for ministry.  Again, that isn't right.  But I am learning.
 
Family moments.  We went through one, what you might call a right of passage, as of late (and I won't share what it is or which family member was involved).  It me me hard, and I have said little about it.  As a husband and a father, these are moments not to sweep under the rug but to cherish.  It might not be comfortable and it might even be something that someone else doesn't want to talk about, but God gives us family moments to savor.
 
Get this.  I love cinnamon and vanilla flavors and candy.  But what I love is the after taste or the after smell.  I was searching for some lost keys in my vehicle yesterday and ran across and vanilla smelly thing in the compartment between the front seats.  The vanilla had been there a while, and it was sweet.  Smelled awesome for a coupler minutes after I moved it around.  Friends, we have to savor family moments like that.  And I learning.
 
Here is one of my favorite family commandments from God:
 
Deuteronomy 6:6-9 (nasb) --- These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
 
Here is another commandment from God that I want to be better at:
 
Ephesians 5:25 (nasb) --- Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
 
Ok, today's devotion is one of those real moments.  One week from this coming Sunday I begin preaching a new series called "Confessions of a Pastor", and you just got in on one of the lessons that God is teaching me.  One of our core values at The Community Fellowship is being real.  God calls us to that, think about it.
 
God, help me to savor the family moments that you give me!

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