Married... with Children“Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the very heart of your house, your children like olive plants all around your table.” (Psalm 128:3) In the 1987–1997 Fox hit series Married...with Children, Ed O’Neill, Katey Sagal and Christina Applegate portrayed the typical dysfunctional all-American family — the Bundys. Contrary to what Hollywood is peddling, God wants our family to be married and not just living together, godly and functional, our wives to be fruitful and our children to be blessed and live a prosperous life. Children are a heritage from God (Psalm 127:3), and God wants our children to be like olive plants all around our table. The table displays the provisions of abundance, and the olive plant signifies living a life of witness to God. “Two olive trees are by it, one at the right of the bowl and the other at its left.” (Zechariah 4:3). It is God’s will that all our children shall be taught of the LORD, and great shall be the peace [wholeness, nothing missing, nothing broken] of our children. (Isaiah 54:13) If we want our children to be blessed we must not be like the Bundys but we must fear God and obey His Word. (Psalm 128) “In the fear of the LORD there is strong confidence, and His children will have a place of refuge.” (Proverbs 14:26) We are spiritual descendants of Abraham through Jesus, and Abraham was a man who feared and obeyed God even to the point of almost killing his only son. (Genesis 22:12) It is our duty as parents to lead our children away from MTV and more than 8 Mile from Eminem in a healthy fear of God. “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6) Abraham trained not just his children, but his entire household staff, in the fear of God “For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” (Genesis 18:19) Abraham trained his children so well that his only son Isaac did not resist when he was bound to be sacrificed on Mount Moriah. (Genesis 22:7-9). Even though we are not Denzel Washington, every day should be Training Day as we train our children in the fear of God and the Word of God so that they will not depart from it when they get old and become parents themselves.Copyright © 2002 Eddy Ministries. All rights reserved. Subscribe/Unsubscribe: eddyn@earthlink.net
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