The question we should ask ourselves is “if our family was in a court of law, would there be enough evidence to convict us of being a Christian family”. It is not enough for us to say that our family views Jesus as it’s Lord, our actions must also demonstrate it. We must “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). We must have Jesus as the Lord of our lives, the Lord of our Marriages and the Lord of our Families and it must be obvious to everyone we meet. We are not to hide our light under a bushel basket, we are to let it shine. This process takes time, we must immerse ourselves in prayer, study of the sacred scriptures, and begin the difficult process of evaluating our activities and surrender them to the Lord.
Making Jesus the Lord of our family can be a daunting task, and one that should be approached with a considerable amount of reflection. We should also not delay in making Jesus the Lord of our Family due to not having everything perfect yet. A great way to begin this process is to make Jesus the Lord of our calendar. We have provided you with a weekly calendar that you and your family can use to map out the next two weeks and discuss how to make Jesus the Lord of your family time. There are many activities that we undertake during the week: Work School Sports Entertainment Church Prayer Sacraments However, we must make sure that Jesus is the Lord of our family. St. Francis of Assisi said, “Preach the Gospel always, use words when necessary.” When raising children we must remember this wise advice. Our children learn far more from watching us than listening to what we say. If we say that Jesus is the Lord of our family, but our schedule is centered around work, sports or school, they won’t believe us.
Making Jesus the Lord of our Family was the topic for our September 2014 Family Fun Day, the reflection on this topic was given by Fr. Nathan Cromly:
You may also wish to download the handout which includes the Family Activity which you may wish to do with your family.
- Handout – Jesus Lord of my Family Handout
- Weekly Calendar – Weekly Calendar
SEP
2014
About the Author:
Allen Hébert is a Senior Solutions Engineer in the Information Technology Industry. Allen and his wife Denae, have been married for over 31 years and they have been blessed with nine children. Allen enjoys swimming, driving the family RV and the great outdoors.