And the Walls Came Crumbling Down

Have you ever read the book of Nehemiah?  It is the story of how Jerusalem lay in ruins and it's gates had been burned.  Nehemiah wanted to rebuild the wall around the city so that the citizens would once again be safe.  He was ridiculed and chastised for trying to rally people into helping build the wall.  But he was steadfast, as he knew attacks would come again and again and the people would never be safe in their homes, without
                                                                            that hedge of protection around them.

If you read the whole story, you will see that people were stationed around the city, family by family, each responsible for building their part of the wall.  As they were rebuilding they were under constant threat of attack from their enemies.  So while they worked on their portion of the wall, they actually had to hold weapons with one hand in order to protect themselves.  They worked side by side, each one having their role in building the wall and protecting the family.

Think about this, each family was busy building and protecting itself.  As a result, a strong wall was built around and protected an entire city.  I think about families today, so scattered, so distracted, so preoccupied with the things of this world.  Who is protecting your family?  Are you working shoulder to shoulder to build up it's strength, all the while, being vigilant to outside danger?  If you take the time to see what is going on with each member of the family and make sure that you are all puting forth the effort to spend time together, praying, laughing, taking walks, whatever it is that your family enjoys doing, you are shoring up the protection that families so desparately need today.

It's not always easy to monitor what our children are watching on tv, doing on the computer, playing on their game system, or doing with their friends.  But, this is how enemy is slipping into families and bringing destruction.  I have witnessed families where the children barely come up for air from their video games.  Their little minds are being filled with God knows what, hour after hour after hour.  Boundaries are almost undetectable in society so we must set boundaries in our homes.  I don't mean we shouldn't ever allow our kids to have fun or that we shouldn't trust them.  We are to build them up, while watching out for them at the same time.  Just like the people did while they were rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem.

It's not just our children who need protection, but marriages, as well.  As life moves on and stress builds, we can either turn to each other, as a couple, for strength and safety, or we can turn outside our marriages.  We make little choices every day that will either weaken or strengthen that bond.

There are some families who have taken a lot of care to build strong walls of protection.  There are others who have cracks in their walls with signs of crumbling on the way, and still others, who's walls have completely come down, their family in shambles!  What if each family did their part to protect each other from the outside forces that are so harmful to them.  It would seem to be the natural progression that with healthy strong families, would come healthy strong neighborhoods which would lead to healthy strong cities and who knows how far this concept could reach.

What steps have you taken to build a strong safe family?  Share some of your ideas with us on how to make a strong society by starting with strong families!

From His lap,