Thursday, 28th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

The ideal christian home – Part 3

By Etim Ekong
06 January 2019   |   2:07 am
The Assault on Freedom of Speech: In no place is there more need of kindness of speech and manner than in the home. Yet in no other place is there more plain speaking.

Etim Ekong

The Assault on Freedom of Speech: In no place is there more need of kindness of speech and manner than in the home. Yet in no other place is there more plain speaking. The mask of pleasantness, which may be worn all day in business or social relations, may be laid aside in the home. The character revealed and the coarseness of language used may easily drive away every vestige of happiness. When people live together under the same roof, the feelings become very tender and are easily hurt. What is said outside may be thought little of, but at home it is different. “Catch the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes” (cf. Song of Songs 2:15).

Incompatibility of temper is a reason sometimes given for the breaking up of a home. But the real reason is undue familiarity and freedom of speech. Because persons live together in families, this should be no licence to say everything and anything, no matter who is hurt. Home happiness is a tender plant; it needs much care and watchfulness. But when it blooms, the flowers are of a rare beauty of form and their fragrance exceeds that of all others.

The Assault Upon the Quiet of the Home: In the modern stress and strain of life, there is need of a quiet place in which to rest, to get acquainted with God, to know one’s family, to live to the best things and to get ready again to engage enthusiastically in the daily battle of life. The home is designed to furnish such a place of rest, when the work of the day is done. It is here, in a Christian home, that there should be an atmosphere of supreme love and care. It is, however, when night comes that all the attractions, which appeal to the love of excitement, put forth their most strenuous efforts to draw to them the inmates of the home. Many will chase for excitement and pleasure, which will never satisfy them. Multitudes of wrecked homes and burned out characters show the disastrous work of this assault upon the quiet of the home. Just like the saying, “a family that prays together stays together.”

The Preservation Of The Home
How may the home be preserved and made to serve its great end? There are three ways, amongst a greater number, which are here indicated.
• Personal Care: All betterment of the home must begin with the individual, and every individual has a chance to exercise this care. Thought, time and money, all need to be employed in working out in a practical way the ideal of the true home.
• Placing the Home Under God’s Care: There is a need for the reinstatement of the custom of family worship; the place and time where and when the family is commended to God and placed under His care. As children of the great household of God, we need to constantly keep in touch with our Father.
• The Obedience of the Golden Rule, as it is stated in a new form: I will not do unto others that which I would not have them do to me. I will not think of others that which I would not have them think of me. I will not say of others that which I would not have them say of me.For the realisation of an ideal home, we must as Christians Recognise Jesus Christ as the Foundation, and the Centre, by following His precepts.

In this article

0 Comments