What would the children of a perfect family look like? We’ll never know, because there are none. Even where things look perfect, there are two sinners who marry, and with the vows made on their wedding day, they bring all kinds of cargo (emotions, habits, & natures) with them that they will have to deal with. But what about a broken home, or family where only the wife is a child of God? It is certainly harder, but His Word is full of instruction to guide us in helping our family honor Him – no matter the makeup.
I was reminded of this truth yesterday when I read Acts 16:1 – Then came he to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek: This is a family divided; Timothy’s mother was a believer, his father, it seems, was not. We would gasp, shake our heads and grimace at the chance their son had to turn out to be a Christian, like his mother and grandmother. But he did trust Christ!
Timothy didn’t just trust Christ – he became a right-hand man to Paul. Paul said of him in Philippians 2:19-22 But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state. For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s. But ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel. Timothy was a rare breed of young men. He was a man who was faithful, dependable, and a servant of Jesus Christ, spite the fact that his mother trained him spiritually without the assistance of her husband.
My point is this – if you are married to an unbeliever, or a man weak in the faith, or have no man at all in your child’s picture, God will equip you to train your child for Him. Your little one isn’t a “lost cause.” God has a plan for his/her life, and He can and will enable you to have wisdom, strength and grace to lead him/her to the Lord. May you be like Timothy’s mother, Eunice who Paul said had “unfeigned, (sincere) faith”. She lived out a wonderful testimony of faith and obedience before her son, and that helped him to follow the same path for his own life.
You live like Eunice, and watch your child turn out like Timothy.
With prayers for you,
RefreshHer 