When I was growing up, my siblings and I thought that we had the strictest parents who had ever existed. When I would talk to my friends, though, most of them claimed that their parents had the inside track to that title. It simply felt like we were always being given rules. Clean up your room. Don’t put your elbows on the table. Ask to be excused before leaving the table. Apologize to your sister. I could not figure out why my parents seemed so obsessed with these rules.
Now that I am a parent I understand that a family doesn’t work unless you have a certain way of doing things. If there are no standards that unify a family, then it is not a family at all. It is just an assortment of individuals who are all going their own way.
While this probably would’ve sounded nice to me when I was a child, none of us really wants a family that is disconnected. While I grew up with certain enforced limitations, I also grew up viewing my family through the lens of freedom. With them, I could be my real self. After acting certain ways at school and around my friends, I could let my guard down with my family. After all, I knew that they would still be my family no matter what. In my family, I experienced both freedom and limitations.
This Sunday we will explore the dynamics of life in God’s family. We will come face-to-face with both the freedom and the limitations that make it so wonderful to be adopted into the family of God.
Dan
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