Hi everyone, I’m Michelle Anthony. Welcome to Family Ministry Conversations. Today’s topic is Becoming a Spiritually Healthy Family.
And in my book by the same title, Becoming a Spiritually Healthy Family, I talk about how that is something Christ does in us over a period of time. I am confident of this because the apostle Paul was confident of this.
In Philippians 1:6, Paul said, “I am confident of this very thing. That he who began a good work in you, will be faithful to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
We can take hope in this. Although we haven’t arrived at spiritual health or attained all we desire for our families, Christ—through His Holy Spirit—is working in and through us as we submit to His ways and His plans.
We’re going to go after spiritual health from the inside out.
It’s a Daily Commitment
When I am attempting to become physically healthy, the same things apply. I can’t just take a magic pill or go to the gym one day and say, “Poof, I am now physically healthy.” It’s a commitment. It’s daily.
It’s baby steps and good decisions. And then there’s days when I mess up. And so tomorrow’s a new day.
I think the same metaphor applies to becoming spiritually healthy as a family. We have good days when we read Scripture together and pray as a family and nobody rolls their eyes. Everyone is tuned into our family devotions, or the conversations where Christ was at the center.
And then the next day we lose our temper, we shout at our children or our spouse, and we just feel like failures.
The good news is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is fresh and new in mercies every single morning. Becoming a spiritually healthy family says, “We’re going to wake up every day, and we’re going to recognize our weaknesses before a Holy God. We’re going to submit to His ways, His desires, and His plans.
And then we are going to walk in step with His Spirit. We’re going to make the choices that say that we are following Christ. When we get it wrong, we are going to be quick to apologize.
We’ll be quick to ask for God’s forgiveness and for forgiveness from those who we’ve offended with our sins or our words or actions. And then we’re going to step into the grace He offers, and we’re going to start over again.
This is the beauty of becoming a spiritually healthy family. Sometimes it feels like 3 steps forward and 2 steps back, but God is perfecting himself in us.
Taking an Honest Look
In my book, Becoming a Spiritually Healthy Family, I talk about the fact that so often we become spiritually unhealthy because we are simply dealing with the repercussions of our sin or the dysfunctions in our lives.
Until we get to the root of these issues—until we get to the causes of why we keep manifesting the same sin and the same dysfunction over and over again—we’re simply going to be living symptomatically with our sin.
To be spiritually healthy, says, “We’re going to get to the root of it.”
This takes a very honest look with God’s Word and His spirit in our lives. Maybe we’re going to mourn our past, the sins that have been committed against us, or the sins that we’ve committed.
We’re going to mourn some of those things. And we’re going to give ourselves the opportunity to look honestly and openly at them. But then we are going to receive what is new and good, and we’ll walk forward.
This is my hope and prayer for us as spiritually healthy families: to know that we’re on journey, we haven’t arrived, and we’re going to take it day by day.
We’re also going to resist the temptation to just simply live with our dysfunctions and the manifestations of those. We’re going to go after spiritual health from the inside out.
Ready to help parents create an environment for spiritual growth?
Ready to help parents create an environment for spiritual growth?
