One of your biggest responsibilities is towards your family. God calls you to grow personally because it is impossible to help your children grow if, as parents, you are not growing.
Right from the start, we have tendency to favor or to neglect certain areas of knowledge according to our backgrounds, personalities and lives. We must, therefore, ask God to help us find and maintain a balanced personality, in order to guide our family members in their growth.
However, I would like to point out two terrible lies that the enemy of our souls uses to suffocate us and curb our growth as well as that of our family.
Together, we have to expose and overthrow them in order to free ourselves and keep hope in our family. The first one is “It’s too late” where you end convincing yourself that nothing can change in a particular situation. It is a danger, a temptation and a lie that drives us to give up in our relationships and spirituality.
The second lie is “I don't need to change.” It takes root in our pride and convinces us that it is up to others to change.
I cannot help my spouse to grow if I don’t grow myself. With Jesus, I am called to grow in four spheres:
- In wisdom, whether intellectually, according to my education, my knowledge and learning, my maturity.
- In stature, either by adopting good habits in life or physically in a healthy lifestyle.
- In favor with all men, my social development in terms of interpersonal skills.
- In favor before God, spiritually by nurturing our personal knowledge of God, the Word, his nature, his promises and his plans.
Today, your family needs to hear you say, "Lord, keep changing me. I confess my pride to you. I still need to change. I stand humbly before you and ask you to mold me into the image of your son, Jesus. I want to grow in you and be used by you to inspire and help each member of my family grow in you.”
Claude Houde is the lead pastor of Eglise Nouvelle Vie (New Life Church) in Montreal, Canada. Under his leadership New Life Church has grown from a handful of people to more than 3500 in a part of Canada with few successful Protestant churches.