"And he will [come and] turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers."
//Malachi 4:6 (NKJV Version)
Last Sunday was Father's Day and we brought our Dad & Mom to Sushi Tei to celebrate. Even more than we enjoyed the food and the fellowship, I was touched by how far God has brought our family. That He has started healing the wounds that were in our midst, bringing us closer together and He is now using us to bring healing to those around us.
Dr Corne Bekker said something very true and moving during the Father Day's service on Sunday. He said that God's ultimate desire to is to bring forth healing in our hearts and that we would only be able to heal our families when our own hearts have been healed, when we experience the extraordinary love of our God as our heavenly father.
I don't know if you have been working very hard to repair or hold your family together or if right now, your hearts are not turned towards your parents, but I think the first step is to put everything down, come before God and tell Him that you yourself need healing first. And I think that has been very true for me. I was fairly rebellious in secondary school and for some reason, I got easily angry at whatever my parents said. Little things would provoke me and there would be times when I would be writing furiously in my diary, bemoaning how unfair they were to me.
But as I grew up, I began to realise that my parents were not perfect and they themselves needed healing and restoration. I saw how my mother's relationship with her parents affected her view of her self-worth and I saw how my father's loss of his own father early on in life caused him to always long for fatherly affection. And as I saw all these, I realised that my own hard work could not keep my family together, that no amount of prodding or pushing could bring us to where we needed to be.
But the end of myself is really the beginning of God. I realised that I needed to be healed first and experience God's love for myself before I could touch my family. And He truly is faithful. Even though our Sunday devotions got off to a fairly rocky and argumentative start, we have continued it till today and through all the sharing, the hurt, the joy and the pain, we've also began to see the beginning of the fruits of His faithfulness.
So if you're struggling today, don't strive any longer. Put everything down and just whisper it softly to Him. Tell Him that you need his presence, protection, attention, affection, peace and comfort. Ask Him to heal the wounds that have accumulated over the years. And ask Him to keep your family together.
My God is a promise-keeper. He will never let you down.
"And he will [come and] turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers."
//Malachi 4:6 (NKJV Version)
Last Sunday was Father's Day and we brought our Dad & Mom to Sushi Tei to celebrate. Even more than we enjoyed the food and the fellowship, I was touched by how far God has brought our family. That He has started healing the wounds that were in our midst, bringing us closer together and He is now using us to bring healing to those around us.
Dr Corne Bekker said something very true and moving during the Father Day's service on Sunday. He said that God's ultimate desire to is to bring forth healing in our hearts and that we would only be able to heal our families when our own hearts have been healed, when we experience the extraordinary love of our God as our heavenly father.
I don't know if you have been working very hard to repair or hold your family together or if right now, your hearts are not turned towards your parents, but I think the first step is to put everything down, come before God and tell Him that you yourself need healing first. And I think that has been very true for me. I was fairly rebellious in secondary school and for some reason, I got easily angry at whatever my parents said. Little things would provoke me and there would be times when I would be writing furiously in my diary, bemoaning how unfair they were to me.
But as I grew up, I began to realise that my parents were not perfect and they themselves needed healing and restoration. I saw how my mother's relationship with her parents affected her view of her self-worth and I saw how my father's loss of his own father early on in life caused him to always long for fatherly affection. And as I saw all these, I realised that my own hard work could not keep my family together, that no amount of prodding or pushing could bring us to where we needed to be.
But the end of myself is really the beginning of God. I realised that I needed to be healed first and experience God's love for myself before I could touch my family. And He truly is faithful. Even though our Sunday devotions got off to a fairly rocky and argumentative start, we have continued it till today and through all the sharing, the hurt, the joy and the pain, we've also began to see the beginning of the fruits of His faithfulness.
So if you're struggling today, don't strive any longer. Put everything down and just whisper it softly to Him. Tell Him that you need his presence, protection, attention, affection, peace and comfort. Ask Him to heal the wounds that have accumulated over the years. And ask Him to keep your family together.
My God is a promise-keeper. He will never let you down.
