One day before the start of the March campaign “Pray for Workers” and I can already feel the effects. This morning I had an exceptionally long quiet time with God and, while my prayer was not as long as it should have been, I can already see some insights into God’s plan.
As most who read this know, I have a medical condition which prevents me from many common activities. Most days I suffer with pain all day and just try to make it through the day. Some days, my pain is reduced enough for me not to notice, but it’s still there. Since I am still able to work and go to church half of the time, it is not a sound idea to attempt surgery just yet. Which leaves me with chronic pain. For years I’ve wrestled with God over this. “Why me? Why this pain? Why at this point in my life?”
I’ve recently been reading Point Man: How to Lead Your Family along with the campaign book To Busy Not To Pray. Two things I gleamed this morning when combining their teachings via the scriptures:
- God wants to give you your heart’s desires
- God needs you to raise Christian children
I love my boys and I want to give them everything they want … just as my heavenly Father loves me and wants to give me everything I want. But I need to be diligent in my prayers and not give up on God. Because I’m home a lot, my boys see me and when I pray and don’t pray. They need to understand that God is a REAL part of my life and not just something we talk about at church. This lead me to something else…
I’m home A LOT! Because I have difficultly driving, I don’t go out very often. I walk to work, but some days I work from home. So I’m home a lot. But I’ve learned that the one biggest cause in the decline of the modern family since the Industrial Revolution is the lack of fatherly presence in the home. Factories and corporations forced men to leave their farms and home workshops to slave away behind closed doors separated from their families for a third of five days a week.
Before then, fathers worked at home on farms or in privately owned shops and taught their sons how to work, trade, and live. Here and there, they could take a moment out of their day and help their son with an attitude adjustment, or an issue of disrespect, or how to seize a moment to do a good thing. But when the father is not there, you simply cannot cram those moments in at the end of the day. This is where I think God has something special in mind for my boys. I’m almost ALWAYS home. I can take a moment to teach my sons about telling the truth or correct them with their homework.
THIS is where I think God is preparing me and my family. By allowing me to suffer a condition which keeps me close to home, God ensures that my boys get the training and discipline they need to raise up into Godly men. Maybe this is true, maybe not. But as long as I AM at home, this is what I will work towards!
