Ephesians 6:1-4 • Gospel Parenting

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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)

 I'm going to ask that you look in your Bibles this morning at Ephesians chapter 6. So we'll look at Ephesians chapter 6 verses 1 through 4. And the reason is because in these last few weeks we've been studying how God intended to use the church to be the face of Christ to the world. And we know the way that He does that is by ensuring that we are the face of Christ to one another in our homes. So we've been talking about what it means to be a Christian spouse, husband and wife in the Lord to be the face of Christ to one another. But that's not the end of the task. The Lord also talks about what it means to be a family that is showing the face of Christ to one another even as parents and children.



 And for that reason, we're going to read Ephesians 6 verses 1 through 4 and think of what it means by God's instruction to be a godly family that is living out the gospel of showing the face of Christ to the world by the way in which we are parents and children before God. These are the words from Ephesians chapter 6 right at the opening.



 "Children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right.



 Honor your father and mother." This is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.



 "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord."



 Author Jennifer Phillips writes this, "When I had my first child, I was determined to knock this parenting thing out of the park. I read all the books that said, if you do these things, your child will be on a predictable schedule and will sleep through the night by the time you come home from the hospital.



 Mommies of newborns, do you see me winking at you?"



 Back to Jennifer Phillips, she writes, "This child will never rebel or have low self-esteem or be mean to puppies or receive less than a 700 on his SAT scores," something like that. "And from the beginning, my son would not cooperate. He cried endlessly, he had trouble feeding, and he wouldn't nap for more than 20 minutes at a time."



 She writes, "Do you know my predominant emotion in the middle of all this?



 It was anger.



 At my infant, I threw pillows in the middle of the night, I yelled at my husband, and I said not very kind words to my infant.



 I was upset because I had faithfully followed A and B, and I wasn't getting C. I deserved a child who would cooperate. All the books told me he would if I did my part.



 I did my part, and I was furious."



 Well, I asked the mother of our children to tell that account, and I'm glad she winked at the moms out there who know the futility of trying to raise a perfect child. So even again this week as I explain the Scriptures, but ask Kathy to give illustrations from our lives when she says that there was a mom who was furious.



 As much as we might wink at that, we may know the reality of it. And the reason is not so much because moms are furious at their infants or other children.



 Our angriest parents is more often at our idols, the idols of control and reputation and success and parental faithfulness. These idols promise us fulfillment and satisfaction and approval and significance in the performance of our child.



 And what we begin to recognize is that our children inevitably show that they are undeniably human because they have proven that our idols have failed.



 And what that says to my heart as a parent is, "I have failed because everyone was promising me if I just did a good enough job, if I just did it right, that my child will not embarrass me or frustrate me or make me furious."



 And every parent struggles with those dynamics, which means that what is happening is our children are proving our own humanity and that's what makes us furious.



 Having so much our own failure and our embarrassment and our anger, we pray, "All right, God, just tell me what to do and I'll do it. I mean, if you just give me the list and I'll put it on my refrigerator with the magnets and I'll just check it off every day and I'll do exactly what you say. If you'll just give me the boxes to check off, I'll do it."



 And so often we try and think we've done it and then find the perfection of our children is still a long way off. What we are looking for is check off lists and God is doing something far wiser. And the reason we know that is true is when we start to use the Bible as our child development manual, we're almost always disappointed. I mean, we want a manual for every stage of child development. And what you get instead is four measly verses on parenting. Now, wait a second, God, I need an encyclopedia of what it means to be a parent raising a godly child. Well, you at least give me a list of the best websites and I get four verses.



 And I will tell you, if you're going to start looking at other passages in the Bible, this is the longest passage in the Bible on parenting. And we inevitably think there is something wrong here, I need something better.



 But God is wise and what He is doing in His wisdom is not giving us a set of boxes to check offs like our kids were automatons, but rather He is giving us an architecture of the biblical family that functions with the uniqueness and the grace of parents and families and children and begins to help us understand how we build on the truths of Scripture in order to have the children that God gives us grow in Him rather than just grow as robots who are acting according to the boxes that we have checked off. I'm going to get up so that you can see the board that I'm writing on here. What we are doing right now is recognizing that what God has done in His Word is given us a foundation for building a Christian family that is not just a set of instructions that we're checking off the list. Instead, if you're thinking of an architecture with a foundation, He begins with our relationships. And those relationships actually lead to responsibilities and those responsibilities to instructions. And where we will be on this particular day is looking at these relationships, recognizing that they are truly the foundation for the family that is going to reflect the face of Christ to one another and to the world. And that's more than just a list of the best websites. It is saying, "How do we build according to God's instruction?" And the first building block of the godly family is a loving relationship with the Lord. And we will talk about that for a while of what that looks like. Because that first building block of a relationship with the Lord is what the Apostle Paul has dealt with in most of the book of Ephesians, the letter that he wrote to the church at Ephesus already. I mean, those of you who have been with us as we've gone through this, through the Bible in a year and recognized that when we got to Ephesians, we saw God's plan for the church. And he said, "This is the body of Christ, all these different people from the different ethnicities and backgrounds gathering together to worship God. This body of Christ functioning as an organism with different people, with different gifts and backgrounds called into fulfilling God's mission for the world that ultimately across the ages and across the regions of the world, Christ is moving forward until His power touches all people in all places.



 And that is the first step, is recognizing that what God is doing is He's telling us what it means to love the body of Christ before He ever tells us what it means to love a child. Why is that?



 Because Jesus Himself said that His body, the church, was going to be so powerful that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. The reason that we need to understand the church and involve our families in the body life of the church is this is our first defense spiritually for our children against Satan himself. These are not idle words, we who wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities and spiritual wickedness in high places to recognize that God has said in this body of Christ that's forming, "I'm not just telling you it takes a village.



 I'm telling you to protect your children and to raise them in the way they are strong for the Lord Jesus and against the wiles of Satan is to involve them in the church in such a way that it's not just God's offense against Satan.



 Involvement in the body life of the church is your defense against spiritual evil that would threaten your children for their entire lifetimes.



 God is calling His children to a great defense and it's parents who understand what it means to be involved in the life and the ministry of the church. Here they are not just learning, of course we want them to learn, they are not just learning,



 "Jesus loves me, all great, all good."



 But we recognize that what is happening is that children are being surrounded by spiritual nurture.



 When we baptize children in this church, we don't just ask the immediate parents to make vows before the Lord.



 Every time we ask the church as a whole, "Will you provide this child with prayer and a Christian example?"



 Because we know what that means. It means children will grow up in the life of the church seeing adults who know the Lord



 and love the Lord and know what it means to be forgiven.



 And as a consequence in their lives and in their worship, they are saying, "This Jesus is real."



 And kids that are adults that are kids grow up respecting and loving are saying to them,



 "I want you to know my Father in heaven, He loves and He forgives and He gave His Son for me, and I believe that, and I'm entrusting my life and my future to that heavenly Father."



 And when our children are surrounded by families and adults who believe that, then we are providing them with a fortress as it were, a faith, so that they are being prepared. Not just by the family itself. God did not mean for us to be parents alone.



 He meant for us to be united with others in the rearing of our children. There will be a time always when children have tough times listening to their parents,



 but there will be loving families around them who love the Lord and are helping to raise them too. And Kathy, we've seen that with power.



 When our kids were first arriving in our family when they were little, we had the great privilege of being in a church with lots of parents our age and lots of kids, the ages of our kids.



 As parents, we got together. We encouraged and taught and corrected one another. We cried over the hard times. We laughed over the silly times from everything, from diapering to discipline, when to crack down on those rascals, when to ease up. And what was a fair expectation for the different ages and stages of children as they grew.



 So we raised our kids and we raised each other's kids.



 And we raised each other in the context of a community that loved Jesus and forgave one another and helped one another grow up as we were growing up our kids.



 Many of these parents and their children are our best friends to this very day.



 So special times, some special moments. And the reason Kathy is here with me during this sheltering in place world pandemic time is we knew it would be good for us just to speak honestly, not only about our own lives as I'm trying to explain what these scriptures mean, but we need to even reflect upon the dynamics of the moment and what we are talking about as well. Here's what we know. Because of the COVID-19 crisis, families are sheltering in place and because they are sheltering in place for many of our families, there is greater stress than there has been in any time that they can remember. And because there is stress and because we are trying to parent in ways that we haven't before, it becomes so vital that we have people that we can debrief with and the people we can unload with and people that we can vent with or check off. What are you doing with your kids?



 And that is a good thing.



 The life of the church is a body. And the reason is God never meant for us to raise our children alone so that when we're struggling and when we're wondering, God does not say, "Well, you just go it alone." That is never God's intent. And some of our models are positive, some are negative in the life of the church, but we're evaluating and helping one another and that is actually God's content. We tease a little bit during this pandemic time that as we're all sheltering in place, about nine months from now, there may be a baby boom in this church.



 But even then, it will be all the more important that we help one another as the family of God, as the body of Christ, to grow in the reality of what it means to be parents of those children who are sinners just like we are and need our help to grow in the grace that God intends. Now, just again, straight talk for these times.



 Does it really mean anything? Is it just preacher and wife telling people, you know, "Get your families in church." Well, that doesn't even work right now, does it? So why do we so emphasize the body of Christ in these moments?



 It truly makes a profound difference and you don't just need, you know, the preacher talk to hear that. A couple of years ago, 2018, a Harvard study investigated the health both mentally and physically of children and teens who were raised in what they called a spiritual environment, that is families were regularly involved in some house of worship. And here's the conclusion of that study.



 Those who attended religious services at least once a week reported that as teens, they were happier.



 And even into their 20s, they were far happier by their self-reporting than those who had never attended religious services.



 They were more likely to volunteer to help others during their 20s.



 They were less likely to use illegal drugs during their teens or their 20s.



 Those who prayed regularly in their families as they were growing up reported greater life satisfaction.



 They were better able to process their emotions.



 They were more forgiving of others.



 They were less likely to have sex before they were married, and they were more likely to enjoy sex while they were married.



 It's not magic.



 It is the reality of being a family of faith, learning what it means to love and forgive and build one another up in the Lord, and children seeing that through their life and through the body of Christ. And even when the parents fail, to see it in the life and the body of Christ.



 The Forbes article that reported on that study actually concluded this way.



 Some fundamental habits that humans have been doing for eons, praying, worshiping, scripture meditation might actually have a bit more value than we tend to think.



 Well, imagine that. What the Bible says is in fact what happens. So why should we be talking about it in this particular time? Again, Kathy and I slowed down as we were preparing these words because we just recognized there's so much we wanted to say to our own church family during this pandemic and sheltering in place time. I mean, maybe it's just a time for us to reevaluate our busyness and the sports activities and the college preps and the ballet practices and all those things that so add to our busyness that it takes us out of worship that are actually things far more formative to the spiritual and emotional well-being of our children for their whole lifetime. I mean, after why are we all involved in those sports and the ballet classes and the college preps? Because we want our kids to have a successful and good life.



 But we know statistically, if not by our own hearts, that those families that are raising children mature in the Lord are those who are most likely to experience God's blessing and their own emotional health long, long beyond their childhood years. And so maybe it's just a time to think again as we eventually will be into reentry here.



 Is this a time to think about it again?



 Of what we are doing as a family? Have we prioritized taking our kids to church at some of the most critical times? Here's what we know between the ages of 14 and 18.



 All children, two-thirds of those who will make a lifetime commitment to Christ, will have made that commitment by the time they're 18.



 So are we taking them out of church, out of spiritual witness by the body of Christ at the very time that it's most crucial for their lifelong development? For that reason, maybe God is giving in this awful time a little space to us as families to think again, what can we be doing for the good of our children long term?



 We think about the church context not because we want to make it now again a check-off box. I mean, every one of us knows what can happen. You can talk so much about the goodness of the life and the body of Christ that some parents are going to begin to use church attendance like some sort of rabbit's foot, you know, some sort of superstition. As long as we're in church regular, our kids are going to be perfect, they're going to turn out right, that's what Pastor Bryan said.



 Well, I did not say that. We don't substitute church performance for a relationship with the Lord. And that's what we started by talking about. It's exposing our children to those who love the Lord, not just those who are in Christian habits. What's important is those habits are to express our love, it's not the habits that are superstitious magic that, you know, if you get your kids to A and you focus on B, then C, your kids are going to turn out this way as a mature Christian. That's not how it works.



 What is working is parents who are devoted to God with families of believers, with one another in the home, are developing a loving relationship, not just with the body of Christ, that's not ultimately the point, that they are developing a loving relationship with the heavenly Father.



 Before we ever got to talking about parenting, what did the Apostle talk about? He talked about a loving relationship with God the Father. Now, for the engineers out here, just some statistics, right? What's happening in the book of Ephesians? Before you ever get to talking about parenting, there are about a hundred verses on understanding the love of God the Father. Think about that.



 It's understanding the love of God the Father before you actually get one verse on what it means to love your children. Fathers do not provoke your children to anger. Before there's any instruction, one verse to parents, there are a hundred of what it means to love the Lord. And then, of course, before you get to that one verse on parenting, you get 12 verses on what it means to be a husband and wife in the Lord.



 I mean, the proportions should be saying something about importance, that the first thing that we're being called to is a loving relationship with the Lord. Yes, with the body of Christ.



 But even more, that personal relationship with God the Father, that's how the book of Ephesians began. I say it when we begin these worship services. We remember that we are saying grace and peace to you through God the Father.



 The very first thing that the apostle wants us to know is the love of God the Father who would give His own Son for us, who loves us unconditionally, who forgives us, who takes us back.



 And it's understanding who that Father is that's giving fathers security that they need for what we all know.



 Why do I need to know above all things and live with the love for the Father?



 Because every father, every mother needs the model of a godly parent that we may personally lack.



 There are hard stories in this church of people whose parents were nothing that they should have been. And for that reason, there are sometimes cautions, "Oh, don't talk about God the Father because people who've had bad father experiences won't be able to identify." We should be thinking the reverse.



 What is God saying? For all the human parents with all their failings and with all their mistakes, there is still a godly model above it all. And it is God the Father who has given grace and peace to those who are sinful and broken. And it's that model that we need. Here's the reality. I mean, every single one of us knows that despite the vows that we made not to repeat the mistakes of our parents, we become our parents. I mean, it's not just the insurance company that makes the commercial saying, "You're going to be your parent.



 You're going to buy a sweater vest." Someday you will. And wear mom jeans. What are we going to do without J.C. Penney's? I mean, actually, Kathy does not go to J.C. Penney's.



 I do.



 Here's what we know.



 We will vow not to whine like our parents. We will vow not to rage like our parents. We will vow not to have those words come out of our mouths that came out of our...and we inevitably in fatigue, in weakness, in anger, find ourselves living like our parents. And what God is promising is this. We have another model.



 And we have a better model.



 And that model is a heavenly Father who loves us unconditionally and will never leave us or forsake us. And that model is more powerful than biology or background. It is what His Word itself says. Remember, yes, there are consequences. The iniquities of the fathers visited upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate the Lord. Yes, there are consequences. But the gospel breaks that pattern. It continues to say, "But God will show mercy, His covenant blessing for a thousand generations of those who love Him." It's the gospel cutting in to the bad family patterns and God saying, "I will break that pattern. I am your Father."



 And for that reason, we fathers, when we fail, have such a model that we need. We need to remember that model because we need the Father's security. And Kathy, I'm going to break our notes here because I know, because I've gone too long.



 And it's not just that fathers need the security of a father in heaven so that we don't over-discipline our children. We do. We know how we will.



 Moms need models too. And they need... We tend to under-discipline moms out of our own insecurities.



 The fear of our children's rejection and sadness may keep us from correcting their misbehavior



 and the bad choices that will have long-term consequences. Child guidance and correction gets delayed or ignored because we fear the loss of that child's love. So I try to remind young moms out of my own experience, out of my own bumps and mistakes and failures, I must love my child more than I love his good mood.



 I must love my child more than I want to see him smile at me.



 And being secure in the love of Jesus makes me strong enough to do that tough love that is called for.



 Moms need the tough love that comes from a secure relationship with a heavenly father. Even if my child rejects me, my father, God, holds me. And so I can do what is right for my child.



 Now, Dad, sometimes we're on the other side of that because we are not feeling the security of our heavenly father. We over-discipline in our insecurity.



 I said we would use the times for some real talk here, and here's what's real.



 We know right now all the mental health experts, all the agencies that are dealing with issues of abuse, and I will tell you, pastoral counsel knows this as well.



 As we are experiencing intense job loss and fear and anxiety in this community, those parents who feel insecure and embarrassed and angry at their losses often take it out on those who are closest to them.



 And for that reason, it is more important than ever that we embrace the love of a heavenly father. I am secure in him who will never leave me or forsake me. He is working all things, even this, together for good. And for that reason, I am not going to take it out on my kids. It is our insecurities. Can God fix this? Can God make this right? It sometimes makes us more harsh on those near and dear to us than we ever intended. I've mentioned to this congregation before when I became a professor at Covenant Seminary in that very professorial sermon, the inaugural sermon that I gave to the student body and the professors. Afterwards, one of our young children came running down the center aisle to greet me after my message, and running down that aisle, he ran right into the president of the seminary and knocked him over.



 And I got so mad.



 He was just a kid, but he had embarrassed me. And my rage, though I didn't show it just then, was because of my insecurity. I was looking bad before others instead of recognizing the God of all eternity had embraced me.



 He does. We don't just discipline out of our pain. We don't just discipline so that we will feel better, that we'll have control over somebody.



 And the great temptation in this pandemic time is to forget the security of the one who will never leave us or forsake us and develop our security and the control we have over little people or our own spouse.



 I'm going to ask the dads, the spouses in this church right now, if you're struggling with that, to use this moment even in a sermon, to say this, "I will resolve afresh.



 I will not take this out on my spouse.



 I will not take this out on my kids.



 And if I have, I will ask God's forgiveness and I will ask my family's forgiveness.



 And I will settle again into the security of God and ask Him to take care of my family even as He holds me." I'm going to pray that right now, Kat. Father, I pray for these husbands and wives really struggling just right now. Would You take their hearts to You and them knowing that they are secure in You, make them faithful for their families in love again in Jesus' name? You need to get ready for the second building block.



 The first building block, as you might already see, we said that was going to build Christian families was a love for the Lord. Nothing is more important than that. That is the foundation above everything else. That is the thing that most must be built for us to raise children in the Lord. But there's no question that the second thing I've already mentioned that the Lord has said is most important for building our families is a foundational love for our spouses.



 The reason that there's a chapter preceding these four verses on parenting that deals with love for our spouse is that's just absolutely foundational.



 Parenting is meant to be a team sport. Now, can the Lord be gracious to singleness? Of course. The Apostle Paul was single. He understands singleness and he understands that the grace of God is sufficient for every trial of life.



 But the pattern that is being described in the Scriptures is a husband and a wife who love children and love each other, and for that reason they are establishing that pattern for the future. The Scripture, chapter 5, verse 31, is husbands let each of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband. So there's instruction here for both because both are needed. There's an old playground game that we used to play in my grade school days called Red Rover.



 The group is divided into two teams and there are, team one is here in a line and team two is here in a line. There are parallel lines facing one another across the playground.



 The leader of team one calls out to team two, "Red Rover, Red Rover, send Johnny right over."



 So Johnny musters up all his strength and courage and goes blasting across the playground



 aiming for the holding hands of what he deems to be the weakest two links.



 Across that whole line of team members holding hands he picks out what he thinks is the weakest link and blasts right into it. Now if Johnny is able to burst that link then he grabs one of those that he has defeated and takes him back to his team and the game goes on.



 But if Johnny is not able to burst through these tightly held hands then Johnny becomes a member of that team and the game goes on.



 Not bad.



 The simple message is the most important and influential gift that any parent can give a child is a secure relationship with a spouse.



 And we can talk about lots of parental manual things but the most important relationship is a love relationship with the Lord and the second most important is the example of a mom and dad who love each other. We know the truth, everybody does now. Almost half of all marriages in this country will be undone and the tensions prior to that as well as the tensions and the stresses after the dissolution of a marriage are devastating to children, to their security, to their long-term happiness. Every study agrees with that. They just disagree with the degree of damage that's done to children when marriages are undone. And the Bible is not failing to deal with how hard marriage can be. Every marriage has its rough patches, every single one. And we know the standard things that hurt us. But at the same time the reason that we forgive and we have other people to help us and we return over and over to God for forgiveness and help is we understand this. Children learn how to deal with the opposite gender for life by the way in which moms and dads treat one another.



 Children learn how to face life with deep security because of the security of their own families. Children have confidence that their own marriage will endure because their parents' marriages have endured.



 Children remain devoted to the Lord for a lifetime. What's the most determining factor?



 The regular worship of a husband and wife who love the Lord in the home. The message, treasure your marriage.



 Treasure your spouse in God's way. That's why all that instruction came in preceding verses of this epistle about husbands and wives loving one another. You need each other. And particularly in this time of stress, you will need each other. And it may be a time to say again, "Not only will I not take out things on those closest to me, God help me to love again as I should.



 Help me to draw near again as you mean. I need something more than my own pain right now.



 Please help me find my relief for my pain in the spouse that you intended.



 Love one another.



 Respect one another. Deal with conflict. It will come with honor and respect and integrity, gentleness. We don't fail to deal with issues. We're sinners. We will have issues.



 But we deal with one another as those that God made precious to Himself and so precious to one another.



 A little final caution here is that when we're struggling with a spouse, we don't substitute child attention for spousal intimacy.



 Your child is not designed to be a substitute for your spouse as a confidant, as a play partner, as a counselor.



 As in any church, I will just tell you, we see some of the heartache that happens when couples begin to turn to their children. That is one parting that turns to their child as their confidant rather than the spouse that God intended to heal and help one another. And some of the saddest marriage situations we have known are where friends who are tired of trying again and again to work things out with a spouse, but then instead to turn to their own children as companions or confidants.



 Being a child, a substitute spouse, is not fair to your marriage or to that child. And I'm not talking here about anything inappropriately intimate or sexual in nature.



 My friend Mary began to share her heartache with their son Mark when their marriage was suffering.



 John's job took him far away from their home and their children frequently and for long periods of time.



 Strings and misunderstandings grew as Mary struggled to raise their children and manage a household.



 And so her oldest son Mark became her confidant and companion.



 She began to share with him her frustrations and loneliness, and in turn he began to advise her how to deal with dad.



 As a result, dad felt left out and manipulated.



 Their marriage suffered greatly and, in addition, the father-son relationship was left forever strained and damaged.



 God did not design our children to bear the responsibilities or emotions of marriages, especially when our confiding in them makes them distant from the other spouse or turns them against that spouse.



 Being a child, the primary person we depend on or dump our cares on because it makes us feel better, is an unintentional form of abuse, inevitably damaging the child's understanding of what a marriage should be.



 So no mystery here.



 Best gift that you can give your child, a loving relationship with the Lord.



 And best gift you can give your child for eternity is a loving relationship with your spouse that will take hard work and forgiveness and maybe some things against your personality. So you know, lots of hugs, lots of kisses, lots of smiles, even when the kids say "yuck."



 And that may be against personality and that may be against background. It was for me. I needed Kathy to teach me. But our kids need to see and understand the affection of a husband and wife so that they will be built for a lifetime. So Kathy, I've got to skip to the end just because of where we are.



 So a couple of things. We knew this would be more than we could cover, but in this time we have just felt the weight of trying to help families from the Scriptures.



 And so we'll come back to this next week and we'll let people text in questions or email in the intervening week, even in next week's service.



 But we recognize that our children need the modeling, the security of parents who love each other and parents who love the Lord because that is God's ultimate plan. In our early marriage we had very dear friends who loved one another but the wife developed an addictive problem that made her lie and steal from the family. She put them on the edge of bankruptcy.



 And all kinds of people just poured advice to the husband.



 You don't need to take this. You don't need to stay in there. Get rid of her. Find someone better.



 And at some point he said to me, his pastor, "If my own children do not have a father



 who can forgive their mother, how can they possibly learn of a heavenly father who will forgive them?"



 He forgave his wife. It was hard not just for days or weeks but for years. It was hard.



 I would tell you that has become a family that has become the face of Christ to the world in dynamic and powerful ways, beautiful ways because they were secure in the Lord



 that reflected in their love for one another. They loved one another because they loved the Lord first.



 And when that love gave their children security, it gave the world the face of Christ. Father, I pray for our church family.



 There is no mystery. We are in a hard time.



 And because we are in a hard time, we can express great anxiety toward our families.



 Our frustrations get poured out on them.



 We need security in a heavenly father who is not just the one who loves us eternally but gives us an example of what it means to be merciful and to forgive and to take back and to reflect to spouse and to children the love of Jesus.



 So take these words we pray beyond Kathy's and my weaknesses and for the sake of our church family, your family, teach them much about Jesus.



 For a thousand generations of those that love you, the face of Jesus will shine. When we love you, His face multiplies toward many.



 So show us Jesus we pray in the way that we love you and one another we ask in Jesus' name, amen.