Family Time

My son turned fourteen on the eighteen of this month and my wife turned forty seven on the twenty fourth of this month. This month, we witnessed two birthdays though we do not celebrate birthday as such. As a family, we simply thanked the Lord for adding to our lives one more year and prayed to the Lord that we love Him more, gain Him more, and grow up to Him more. This is what we generally do when we faced our birthdays. Thanking and praying Him for His grace.

For my son, on his birthday I purchased for him a new school bag which can be used for travelling as we have travelling schedules lined up the coming months. For my children, they were happy if I took them out on their birthdays, for a meal at the restaurant of their choice. They did not expect more than that. They were just happy with a time of family eating out on their birthdays. We used those occasions for family time out together. No invitation, no celebration, just a family time together, eating together. Only if I find the need, I used to purchase a gift or two. But very rare was such a need. For my wife, I bought a cake of her choice. We prayed for her and enjoyed the cake together. That made her more than satisfied. In small and big things, we grasped the opportunity to spend time together.

These days, the Lord has blessed us with much time for family bonding. The Lord has been gracious to bind our family together. Gradually, we also established our family prayer and truth pursuing time, personal prayer time, corporate morning revival time, and also corporate prayers with our companions. To me, spiritual life is the most important part of a human life. Once our spiritual life is normal, all the rest will be in good order. So, as a father, I have been doing my best to make sure we all exercise daily for a healthy spiritual life in our family so that we can all become channels of blessing in the church and the community we live in. After all, our lives are for Christ and for the church life.

Lord, bless our family. Gain our daily living for Your testimony, that as Joshua our testimony will indeed be:

And if it seems wrong in your sight to serve Jehovah, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve, either the gods from across the River, whom your fathers served, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah. (Joshua 24:15, RecVer)