What Does The Word Family Mean To You?

My Pastor's favorite English word is "HOME" and he tells a story of his wife asking him to describe in one word what he wanted his home to be. He said "HAPPY".

He recently gave us a survey sheet asking about the programs he has in place for us. He wanted to know if they were interfering with family time and asked us to comment on many of the activities. I wrote down at the bottom of the survey, 'I would ditch them all to spend more time with my family, but I know that these activities are healthy for our spiritual and social development'.

I love being with my family. Every now and then I will be at work and a feeling of homesickness will come over me like a cloud. I have this pressing desire to drop everything and go home because I miss them so much. So I go off alone, calm myself down, call home and talk to my wife for a few minutes.

In Psalm 68:6 God says that he sets the solitary in families. The family is the first institution God ordained; a man and a woman and any children they may or may not have. Families shouldn't need the company of other families to be OK. Yes, you need social skills, friends, work and other outside activities but to function as a family you shouldn't need anyone but God. A family ought to be very comfortable with each other, confident in each other and best friends. They ought to learn from each other and serve each other. They should feel enabled to accomplish any task they ought to perform because of their family.

The word 'family' comes from the Latin word 'famulus' - so does the word familiar. When you say that a person is familiar to you, you are declaring that they are like family. 'Famulus' means servant. So if someone is familiar to you they care for your needs or have in the past and have your welfare in mind. Why should someone who is not family care more about and serve my family more than I?

Families get along best when the service/need scale is in balance. That is not to say that there are no selfish people in our homes. We all are selfish to some degree at times. So in order to cover for my selfishness someone serves me and the times when others are selfish I need to jump in and serve. Servants serve; the selfish take and this is not necessarily a bad thing. But the servant isn't there to just appease the selfish; the selfish needs to be taught to serve as well till there is a flow of give and take. A child may not know how to serve but is learning by taking from the servant. The trouble comes when a person only learns the receive part and neglects learning to serve. It is a journey into maturity that we all must take.

Christ shows us his spin on this subject. As he is washing the feet of his men he instructs them to follow his lead.

Joh 13:12  So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?
Joh 13:13  Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.
Joh 13:14  If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet.
Joh 13:15  For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.
Joh 13:16  Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.
Joh 13:17  If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.

Notice that Christ said happy is what you will be if you learn to serve. Now read this one.

Luk 22:24  And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest.
Luk 22:25  And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors.
Luk 22:26  But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.
Luk 22:27  For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth.

Our strife comes when we want others to serve us and find that they want us to serve them. It takes a great person to let it go and say, 'how may I serve you'. God wants us to excel at being a servant and that is what he says makes us great.

What would our families be like if we all worked at serving one another? Our children would be eager to come home. Our marriages would become more stable - better yet, a pleasure. We would have more good times together and would produce a better society. You would be able to say, 'my home is happy'.

What does the word 'family' mean to you? Could your home use a servant?

It was nice chatting with you,
John