Blessed Family: Time Together

Amidst my busy schedule, I time out to spend quality family time together as a whole family.  Last week on my wife's birthday, we visited a new family where we were asked to share testimonies of our salvation, God's call to serve full-time, and how the Lord led us together to be husband and wife. It was no coincidence that we could testify to new ones on my wife's birthday. I bet that is the best way to celebrate a birthday for new ones spiritual births too. After which, we all went to eat out at McDonald's, our children's favorite. Perhaps, this was the first time we ate out as a family after the pandemic struck last year. We had an enjoyable family time.

Yesterday, we decided to paint our house, only the interior walls, though. All my children were so excited to participate in the painting work. Though the house itself needs painting badly as many parts of the wall were stained with painting and drawing from my own children. Now they themselves decided to clean and paint and maintain it clean. I intentionally took the two younger ones to a painting shop and allowed them to choose the color. They decided to go for a lime breeze, light green. In this way, I made them feel important and trust them in their decision-making from the age of 6 and 11. To me, any color is just fine. Yet, through any occasion, I would impart something important to my children and the people around me.

Generally, since we live in a rented house and pay rent, it should have been the house owner's responsibility to do the paint works which is due for years now. But I took that upon myself, pay my own money, and with all my family members took that opportunity to serve and learn together. I could have simply told the house owner to do so, perhaps that was legally correct. Or, I could have simply hired painters to do the work, perhaps, that would be secularly correct too. But, doing it, I would miss all the lessons and opportunities to serve together as a family. 

Though I knew very well that my children could not paint professionally, anyway, I am not looking for professional work. I wanted them to paint their heart out. They were on holiday and wanted to experiment with new things, learn new things, and do new tasks. That itself will give a sense of responsibility and satisfaction. So, I gave full liberty to all my children to paint and work together. We painted the whole afternoon and did the cleaning work of the house. By the way, we also got to deep clean the house and arranged stuff in the house.  It was indeed a wonderful family time together.

I believe such family time will impress them deeply about family values, taking up responsibilities, and learning to serve together as a family. Of course, for all the hard work they have done, today I treated them with their flavors of ice cream. That's a wonderful family life. Praise the Lord for the blessed family!

Lord Jesus, thank You for the family You blessed me with and the time we could psend together!