By Pastor Desi Wheeler

What exactly is a family? Is it run by a crime boss who is ready to whack you for getting out of line? Is it a bunch of bearded guys riding around on Harleys scaring the bejesus out of everyone? Maybe it’s the groups of young men who sport the red-and-black-and-blue kerchiefs around their craniums to tell you they will be your family forever.

What exactly is a family?

One so-called expert defined it this way: A family is a formation center for relationships, a shelter in the time of storms, and a place where memories are made.

That has a nice ring to it, but if your family was like mine growing up, most of your memories are of screaming and the shattering of dishes.

Now, I’m acutely aware that some families have made better memories than others. But the issue for families today is not just the memories of yesteryear, but where the family is heading today, and even more importantly, tomorrow.

As I consider our theme for this year, Still At It, I can think of no greater blessing than the knowledge that there are so many families this side of Eternity that are still serving the Lord and who still fear Him.

Psalm 128:1 says: “Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, Who walks in his ways.” Even today, families that walk in the ways of the Lord will be blessed. This verse also serves as a promise to those families that continue to walk in the ways of the Lord in the future.

This promise is not for the “perfect” family – that non-existent entity that does everything without a flaw. No. It’s for that family that has made a decision to live for God.

It’s for the family that is still at it, serving God and walking in His ways.

Faithfulness to God is never something that you and your family simply stumble into. It is the result of clear and precise choice made by each individual family to serve God in its generation.

Joshua 24:15 says: “But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family we will serve the Lord.” In a world that has brought the family under siege, this decision may prove to be a challenge.

We live in a world that finds itself habitually turning its head at the sight of domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, abandonment, and an unending list of social and spiritual wrongs.

And yet it is the very existence of this darkened atmosphere that causes Christian families to shine forth for other families as reference points of faithfulness.

God promises His blessings to any family that will fear Him. “Blessed is everyone [or, every family] who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways,” says Psalm 128:1. If our family has determined we will be still at it, then we must choose daily whom we will serve and whom we will fear.

Your relatives can’t choose for you. Your friends can’t decide for you. Your government even falls short of knowing where your family will be today and, more importantly, tomorrow.

Isn’t that what Still At It refers to? That you and your family will fear God, walking the same walk with Him tomorrow that you walk today?

I can think of no greater testimony for our God than to see families still walking in Christ, year after year.

The greatest soul winner to come to earth was and still is Jesus Christ Himself. But not far behind Him, in the impact of an attractive testimony, is that family that has decided to live their lives through the good times and bad in such a way that His name will be glorified.

A faithful family is a powerful living testimony that will lead others to Christ.

II Corinthians 1:12 says: “For our boast is this: the testimony of our conscience that we have behaved in the world and still more toward you, with holiness and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God.”

My encouragement for many families who are still at it, and also for those families just starting out on your journey is this: though we live in a pressure-cooker world that demands that its citizens live in despair, your family can live with peace of mind through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, while winning souls through a lifelong decision to remain faithful to God.

What exactly is a family?

It’s that faithful household that lives under God’s rule and therefore lives in true joy, peace and happiness through Jesus Christ from generation to generation, as they fulfill His purpose on this side of Eternity.