God
is not calling us to win the world and, in the process, lose our
families. But I have known those who so enshrined family life and were
so protective of “quality time” that the children never saw in their
parents the kind of consuming love that made their parent’s faith
attractive to them. Some have lost their children, not because they
weren’t at their soccer games or didn’t take family vacations, but
because they never transmitted a loyalty to Jesus that went deep enough
to interrupt personal preferences. - -- David Shibley in
The Missions Addiction
Thank you for that. While we don't travel to other countries as your family does, we have in the last couple of years been known to road trip to various conferences,mostly for the networking it provides and the teaching. And hopefully a bit of us ministering to others as well. And have helped our pastor with other churches that have asked. Always the youngers come along. One son has missed a few trips simply because he's chosen to play football. Which also means we've missed a few of his games. Sometimes I am sorry I have missed the games, other times I wish I could pull him from it and not feel guilty. I would like to think that with us helping others, connecting with others it provides opportunities in the future perhaps for us and not selfish to drag our children along. This last weekend one of the olders went with us and (watching from the sidelines), was quite blessed and ministered to.
ReplyDeleteYour children will know how to be so unselfish as they grow older. (and now). It will be 2nd nature to them to serve.