The Significance of Your Family’s Private Life

We built our dream home nearly eighteen years ago. In the building process, there were many things the builders had to take into account. They had to be sure to dig past the frost line, set the concrete at the right dimensions, and lay the foundation correctly.

If they built the foundation wrong, it wouldn’t matter how beautifully I furnished the inside—the
foundation would be cracked and the house would fall as soon as any pressure came against it.

The foundation of the house is rarely seen, but it is the house’s stability.

It’s the same with your family’s private life—it is the foundation you are building for your children, and the truth is what happens behind closed doors.

To bring your children to church or attend a Bible study looks good on the exterior, but your children will always revert and rely on their foundation—what happens at home.

Your family must be built on God’s Word.

Jesus said, “What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs” (Luke 12:3). That is so apt for family life.

I observe husbands and wives tearing their own homes down by following others’ foolish examples. In one case, I was in a salon with a hairstylist who had recently gone through a bitter divorce. She spoke brashly, taunting and almost demanding that her female coworkers go to a male strip club with her for the evening. They were married women, and she shamed them all into saying yes except the stylist servicing me, who leaned in to ask me, “What do I say?”

I whispered, “Tell her you’re going home to the only man you want to see strip!”

She said it teasingly, but once she did, silence fell, and one by one the other women decided they better go home, too!

I was surprised how quickly the others had been bullied into doing something that would foolishly tear down their own house (family). It only took one to get them all headed in the wrong direction. But it also only took one who was willing to stand up to give the others the courage to do so.

I would encourage you to not let any militant voice, whether in the media or the workplace, bully you into letting go of your family or the timeless principles that build your home when applied with love. Watch your friendships; you will become them.

We built our family in the same way we built our house. We laid a firm foundation and built upon that with sturdy materials. We have always strived to keep our family’s private life congruent with what we say in our public life, because what happens in private is our foundation, and that is crucial to our children. These are the priorities we put into our family’s foundation.

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This isn’t just another collection of teachings and reading material about family dynamics or how to survive through potty training, back talking, or your college graduate having to move back home.

The New Vintage Family Boxed Set is your road map to parenting God’s way.