Love your family! – Dr. Paul Dhinakaran

“Everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.” (Isaiah 35:10)
God has enabled me and my wife Evangeline to enjoy 31 years of togetherness. Today, we celebrate our 31st wedding anniversary. We thank God from the bottom of our heart for all the goodness and happy years He has blessed us with. Many families start with firing and end with firing but when we start each day with prayer seeking God’s grace on us to speak and do the right things. God fills us with peace and joy with our family members. When we value others above ourselves and don’t take them for granted, we can have a good relationship with each other. Family life is all about giving. We need to give our time, love and possession to our loved ones so that our loved ones will enjoy our company.

God says “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12:31). This is what pleases God and this commandment should be our primary focus when it comes to our family and friends. For the sake of loving others, first we should pray to God to make us perfect so that others will be blessed through us. We need to be selfless. We should honour our spouse and children. We need to sacrifice our priorities for others. We should embrace humility. In some western countries people are surprised to know that my wife and I have been married for so long as their marriages don’t last long. They ask, “Do you live with the same wife?” in shock. But when we bear each other’s burdens and fulfil the will of Christ, God binds the family life with His love.

I was into ministry and my wife was alienated to ministry because she was very young but she carried her burdens and got accustomed to doing ministry with me. She shared my burden and I shared hers. That’s how we moved ahead in life. Husband is the image of God in the family. So a husband should leave his father and mother and be united to his wife (Ephesians 5:31) in the sense, give importance to his wife and children. Husband and wife should care for their own family first then care for each other’s parents. They should take decisions with agreement over each other’s opinion and not look to their parents to make decisions for their family. Doing all this will bring peace, happiness and joy into the family. It starts with the husband and wife. There should be love between them. Only then the children who see the testimony of the parents will grow in a godly way. May God bless you too with a beautiful family life.

Prayer:
Loving Heavenly Father,

Bless each one in my family. Give me the grace to spend my time, love and possession for the benefit of my family members. Help me to show selfless love. Let my life be a testimony before my loved ones. Bind us with Your cords of love so that there will be peace and joy amidst us always. Let me be humble in my words and deeds and love others as I love myself. Help me to become a blessing.

In Jesus name I pray,

Amen.