Focus on the Family, Part 3

When discussing the Focus of the Family, we must address the "roles" of the various family members. Most of us have heard of the term "dysfunctional family". The only reason we have dysfunctional families is because people in the Family don't know how to properly function. The operative word in this statement is "know". If people would be honest, most of us don't "know" how to be a husband. Most of us don't "know" how to be a wife. Most of us don't "know" how to be a father. Most of us don't "know" how to be a mother. And most of us don't know how to be a son or daughter to our parents, particularly when we become adults. So if we're operating in one of God's most Sacred Gifts to humanity, and we in essence don't know what we're doing, the result is going to be Dysfunction. Therefore, we must become more knowledgeable of what it is that God expects from us in these particular Family Roles.

Let's start with the Husband and the Father. The Husband is the Head of the Household (Ephesians 5). This is not debatable, this is not up for discussion, this is the Word of God. God has an Established Order for the Family, and when we as a society go against it, our families are not going to work. Therefore, regardless of the personality, intellect or even spirituality of he who is in the office of the husband or the father, according to the Word and Order of God, that man is in charge. This must be stressed because too many households are being run by the women and this is not the Will of God. Let me stress again, too many households are being run by the women and this is not the Will of God. Regardless of whether the husband is "allowing" this or permitting this, it's still outside of Divine Order. So the man needs to get back in his rightful divine place of headship over the Family that God has Providentially given to him. I can assure you, according to the Divine Order of God, if the husband is not the head, the Family is not going to work.

Then the Wife and Mother is to be Submissive to the Leadership of her Husband. This has been a sensitive issue for years, with the feminist movement and women's rights. But those are social and philosophical movements, not the Word of God. We can't be regulated by theological and social fads, we must be regulated by what thus saith the Lord. And the Lord indeed has a Word regarding "His" Institution of Family. So if you are a God-Fearing Woman, regardless of the initiative, the assertiveness, the intelligence, the spirituality, or the lack thereof, of the man you "chose" to marry, your responsibility to God is to yield to his leadership. I can assure you, if you do not subscribe to the Order that God has established for the office of the wife, your marriage and your family will not be Blessed.

These are fundamental points saints, that many Christians still grapple and argue about. It's no wonder therefore that our witness to the world regarding the state of the Family is lacking and waning. Regardless of how we feel or how we've been conditioned, in Focusing on the Family, we must get back to the Divine Order of God as established in His Word.