We love the phrase in the Pledge of Allegiance: "One Nation under God". To be truly under His Lordship we must have homes "under God" and be one in Him. The home is the basic building block of any society. As the home goes, so goes the nation. Dr. Gary Chapman, noted author and counselor, is teaching in a conference this weekend and in the Saturday evening service. I join him in challenging to place our homes to be under the Head. If not now… when? If not here… where? If not you and me… who?

The book of Proverbs was based on a father saying, "My sons, listen to me" (Proverbs 7:24). He recognized that only "wisdom" can "build a house" and allow us to have understanding through "the knowledge of the Holy One" (Proverbs 9:1, 10). When the Carter administration called a White House conference on families in 1980, they achieved little because the time was spent quarreling over what actually constitutes a family. Different groups insisted on a new definition of "family", one that would give a stamp of approval to their own brand of cohabitation or definition. Things have deteriorated since then as more and more children are being raised in single parent homes. Divorce continues to decimate the ranks of Christian couples. Many wonder if there is hope of ever achieving oneness, harmony, and family as God originally intended.

Marriage is always a two-way street of mutual love. It is a constant work project. When God created "male and female," He desired that we who are "created in His image" must also be "conformed to the image of Christ" (Genesis 1:27; Romans 8:29). The greatest gift that a parent can give to a child is to sacrificially love his or her spouse and be "a friend who loves at all times" and "who sticks closer than a brother" (Proverbs 17:17; 18:24). Our church wants to help you to stick with it and stick together through thick and thin and be the kind of place C.H. Spurgeon described: "When home is ruled by the Word of God, angels might be asked to stay with us, and they would not find themselves out of their element."

Contrary to what a well-known politician has written, it does not "take a village" of increasing government control over our children, but godly parents who construct their homes with God’s wisdom, in His ways, according to His Word and will, undergirded by the faith community. Wise up in a dumbing down world. If your marriage is struggling, get smart and go to God. If your children are wayward, whether they are at home or now adults, cry out to God for them. Don’t give up hope if your unruly child is like an unguided missile; he or she is actually an unclaimed blessing in need of unusual patience and perseverance.