Taking Care of Business

John 19:25 – 27  Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

This is one of my favorite pictures in scripture. There was Jesus, bleeding, in excruciating pain, and He was seeing to His dear mother. What an example to us all.

I think that most of us want to care for our families. Most of us, if questioned, would say that our families are more important to us than anything. Yet too often, our actions send a different message.

Young Family 1

Too often, we allow our work responsibilities or our civil duties or our church involvement to take priority over our families. I have been guilty of this.

But the truth is, at the end of it all, it is our families who will stand beside us when we die. It is our families who will love us to the very end. Our families are treasures, given by God, so that we wouldn’t be alone. Psalm 68:6 tells us, “God sets the lonely in families.”

Our families are the most important relationships we have, next to our relationship with God. So why don’t we value them more than we do? Why do our children and our spouses and our parents get only what’s left over, after we’ve given most of ourselves to everyone else?

I don’t know. I suppose it’s just one of those things we humans often fail at. But we don’t have to fail at our family relationships. If we follow Jesus’ example and make our family relationships a priority, even when we are under stress, even when we have things that seem more important, we will never be sorry. After all, family business is always the most important business.

Dear Father, Thank You for my family. Help me to honor You by honoring them.

Amen

2 Responses to Taking Care of Business

  1. March 4, 2009 #

    Renae, thank you for an important lesson. Signing off now to go call my mother.

  2. March 4, 2009 #

    Hi Pam! Hope you had a good conversation with your mom. 🙂

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.