This week Pastor Rudy Bocanegra spoke on the importance of family. He used 1 John 3:11-24 and 1 Timothy 5:1-8 at his main passages. I really enjoyed what he had to say. I felt that he did a fantastic job of describing how the family unit looks very different today than what it may have looked like just a short 20-30 years ago.
There are a lot of factors that play into this. The concept of the “blended” family, due to divorce, remarriage, adoption, sexual orientation, ect has become a cultural norm for today. Some of these things are good and some are bad. Yet whatever your family unit looks like; blended or not, it still hopefully has some principles that are solid rules for living. I think that this is true even more so if we are Christian.
These are things that I have known and also am experiencing in new ways due to the new family unit I am now apart of. I am now living with a friend, to save some money on rent and also help him with some of his own living expenses. In some respects it could be like college all over again. Yet what makes this situation even more interesting though is that he has an 8-year old daughter living with us a few days a week and alternating weekends.
As I was sitting and listening to Rudy’s sermon, and he was talking of what the Christian family looks like today in our homes, this picture of my “new” family unit kept coming to mind. What does my life look like to this young girl who is beginning to form concepts and ideas of what a Christian looks like? Based on those adults she encounters on a daily basis, is she seeing what love, grace, kindness and forgiveness looks like?
So now, I suppose even more so, I have to watch how I live and act on an everyday basis because someone else is watching. I need to also be prepared to give an answer to every question that may arise. Hopefully, if I mess up, there is some grace and forgiveness there not only from her; but from my roommate as well.
For example, last night, I needed some forgiveness and grace shown. I went outside to move my car from the street back into our driveway after a friend had left. I went out with no shoes. As I began moving my car into its spot, my foot slipped on the gas pedal and instead of slowing down, it sped up and hit the garage door. I am fine. The car is fine other than a bit of paint and a small dent. The garage door however…not so much. It will need replaced. It suffered the worst damage, along with my pride. I needed forgiveness and grace and needed it now. I felt stupid, yet my roommate was very cool about it. Despite damaging an aspect of his house he showed tons of grace and forgiveness. I owned up to my mistake, told him I was sorry, and will pay for the damages. He forgave me and showed tons of kindness and support.
My roomate is a Christian and so am I. He was able to demonstrate without a second thought what a Christ would do. Hopefully I did as well. As Pastor Rudy stated in his sermon and my roommate demonstrated, we must act with love, kindness, grace, forgiveness and the like. The world tells may tell us different. Yet that is why the concept of a family that holds to Christian values is so needed today. With that type of character displayed in the story I described, it is much easier to repair a garage door and even the brokenness of our world as well.
Going Deeper 