Family Matters…OH SO MUCH!!!
Family matters…oh so much!
[su_spacer]
You know this, and so do I.
[su_spacer]
The greatest joy and grief we experience are most likely connected to the ebb and flow of life with our families.
[su_spacer]
I’m at a beautiful stage in life. While I no longer have my grandparents on earth, I do still have my parents and their siblings—my aunts and uncles; I have my sisters (2 of the 3), I have my children (and am gaining in-laws along the way), and I have my grandchildren (maybe not all of them but a few and oh, how grand they are!).
[su_spacer]
I LOVE THESE PEOPLE!!!
[su_spacer]
And the last thing I would ever want to do would be to waste an opportunity to…
encourage them,
guide them closer to Jesus,
or let them know how much they mean to me.
[su_spacer]
Minister’s families have it tough. I don’t know if you’ve realized that yet (lol). It’s as if the devil got an invite to our weddings and decided to paint targets on our backs when no one was looking!
[su_spacer]
Our marriages are targeted for attack.
Our children are attacked.
Even our families of origin will fall under attack if the powers of darkness think they can exploit our love for them and dampen our effectiveness in the kingdom.
[su_spacer]
How many times do your thoughts and feelings take huge detours from ministry concerns so that you can either keep the home fires burning or put them out? Too many times, you say?
[su_spacer]
If so, let me suggest this: keeping those fires burning and putting those other fires out IS your ministry!
[su_spacer]
Family matters…oh so much! And that’s why you’re in the family you’re in.
I know they’re crazy.
I know they drive you crazy.
I know that you don’t want me to know that.
How do I know? I know because I’ve got a family, too.
[su_spacer]
The most valuable asset you have in your family is YOU.
As a daughter, wife, momma, and nana who’s been in the ministry for over 30 years, I’ve got two words for you: Show up.
[su_spacer]
Show up as a parent by investing time in your children. Proverbs 22:6 says: “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Another translation says: “Teach your children to choose the right path. When they are older, they will remain upon that path.”
[su_spacer]
I know you’re busy. You are dropping them off here and there and everywhere. Be more than a taxi driver for your child; be a tender listening ear and a helpful encourager. Be a patient partner and especially be a loving, involved parent. Give those PK’s the best you have, and the best you have is YOU.
[su_spacer]
Share you with them.
[su_spacer]
Show up in your marriage! This marriage of a man and a woman (with unique gender-specific God-given qualities) is God’s object lesson to the world, showing them what His relationship is like with the Church! Ephesians 5:31 says: “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined with his wife. The two are united as one. It’s a great mystery, but this is an illustration of the way Christ and the Church are one.”
[su_spacer]
So when your husband loves you as he loves himself, and when you return his love by respecting him (because that’s how men define love), you preach a powerful sermon from inside your fishbowl!
[su_spacer]
No wonder the world is so confused! When the divorce rate of Jesus’ followers equals the secular world, the world misunderstands God, is confused about Jesus, suspicious of the Church, and upside down and inside out on gender itself!
[su_spacer]
No one else can encourage your ministry husband the way you can! When that fire needs stoking, stop whatever else you’re doing and STOKE THAT FIRE!
[su_spacer]
Show up in your extended family! They know your weekends are scheduled, but unbook a few of them and be there for important events! Share yourself with your people—let them know they matter most by being interested in what’s going on in their lives. And when you get there, lay down the devices and look into their faces.
[su_spacer]
I spent a boatload of money last weekend to take a flight out of town on Friday, just to come back in town on Saturday to sit in a tiny little community theater and watch my sister perform in a play.
[su_spacer]
I wish I could tell you that this was her first performance or that I wouldn’t dream of missing a single one! But it wasn’t like that at all. She’d been in countless performances, and I’d have many opportunities to see one. Unfortunately, I also had infinite reasons to stay home. I didn’t even want to go to this one because I had so many other things to do. But when I got there, I wouldn’t have dreamt of being anywhere else. We had a blast!
[su_spacer]
And to be quite honest, I was both humbled and deeply moved by how much my presence meant to her.
[su_spacer]
Show up, my friend, because family matters…oh so much!
[su_spacer]
Leighann McCoy founded the Prayer Clinic ministry and serves as prayer pastor at Thompson Station Church in Thompson Station, TN. She is the wife of Tom (senior pastor at TSC); daughter of Mike and Lunette (who live in Georgia); sister to Mitzi (Steve) and Amy (whom both live in FL); mother of Mikel, Kaleigh (Jeff), and TJ; and NANA to Misty and River (Mikel). Oh yeah, she is also niece to Carolyn (Sid), Norman (Tammy), Christine (whose husband died of Covid-19).
