FAMILY IT! — Wednesday Family Devotional — “Gentle in Our Time”

How are you at teams?  It’s a popular word, and not just on the field.  Teams are in schools, businesses, even churches.  Of course, they’re also all over TV.  One of my favorites growing up was the A-Team—“I love it when a plan comes together!”  Go around your family for one minute and see how many teams you can come up with.

Avengers.  X-Men.  Furious Five (Kung Fu Panda).  Fantastic Four.  Yeah, we kind of have a theme at our house.  But what I’ve noticed about most teams is that they are often forceful.  Of course, not every one has the mission to fight super villains, but even sports teams are trying to win by force.  A team of doctors fight diseases.  Even your local grocery store team of employees is trying to beat the other grocery store at sales.  It’s a battle out there!

That’s part of what makes our new sermon series so timely.  For the next three months, we’re taking a look at Paul’s letter to the Ephesians as we unpack the idea of gentleness.  Now, gentleness is not a characteristic you’ll find on a lot of those teams you mentioned.  Kicking, shooting, clawing maybe—not being gentle.  But we learned this past Sunday that God wants us to be gentle like Jesus.  That includes our families.  We are to be a gentle force!  But how?

Take out a Bible and read the first two verses of Ephesians.  Now hang with me for a minute, because these two verses don’t seem like much.  It’s basically Paul’s address on the letter.  He’s sharing who he is—an apostle of Christ Jesus, and who he’s reaching—all the saints in Ephesus.  If we follow that pattern, the first steps to being a gentle family force is to know who we are and who we’re reaching.

Who are you?  Take some time together and talk about what your family values.  What do you like to do together?  What’s important to your family?  If it’s not already on the list, talk about adding “gentleness.”  Maybe you can even come up with a fun team name to describe your family!  

Next, do you know who you’re reaching?  In your mind, are you reaching friends?  The lost?  The enemy?  Or have you decided to reach out to ALL of God’s children with the gentle love of Jesus? 

Close your time together in prayer, asking Jesus to help your whole family be a gentle force in our community.  Go team!