Day 34: Harmony in the Family

We have seen some of the main factors in the breakdown of family relationships and disharmony in lack of discipline and all the evils that come from there. What are the remedies? I want to suggest to you three steps that parents need to take:

• Firstly, each parent should repent before God of his or her failure in any respect in relationship with the other partner and with the children. Repentance opens the way for the restoration of God's blessings.
  Secondly, if there's disharmony between parents, they need to be reconciled with each other. That will open the way for their prayers to be answered. But while there's a wrong relationship, that hinders their prayers (see 1 Peter 3:7).
• And thirdly, if parents have seriously failed their children in their duties as parents, another thing they need to do is humble themselves and go to their children, acknowledge their failure and ask forgiveness. And let me say that this is the thing that I as a parent have had to do in the past in my life. I've had to go more than once to one of my children and say, "I'm sorry. I did wrong. Please forgive me." And always that's opened up the way for the restoration of a good relationship and of God's blessing.

Once we have taken these steps as parents, then we qualify for the blessings of God's salvation. And these blessings include our children. There are many Scriptures to this effect, for instance Psalm 103:17-18:

"But from everlasting to everlasting, the LORD's love is with those who fear Him, and His righteousness with their children's children – with those who keep His covenant and remember to obey His precepts." (NIV)

There is a promise to those who keep God's covenant and remember to obey His precepts. One part of the promise is that God's righteousness is with their children's children. Not merely the next generation, but the following generation also will be included in the blessings of God's righteousness.

So, once we are keeping God's covenant and obeying His precepts, we have the right to expect that God will work this out and His righteousness will descend to our children and our children's children.