Family First

What does it mean to think? Thinking means fixing your mind and mental energy on something. We always focus our mental energy on something. What you discover in the process of this is what you think about actually reveals what you love. Did you know that we generally don't think about things we hate? I know there are a couple of thoughts along the way that are random or that we have to fight. But when we intentionally focus on something mentally, it really reveals what we love. That's why God speaks to us so often in the Bible about our thinking about what we fix our minds on.

3 Scriptures about thinking
Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” The question was, What's the greatest thing we can do for God? That was His answer. Notice in the Old Testament it said strength. But Jesus changes that to mind.

The Apostle Paul in Romans 12:2 picks up on this idea of thinking, and he says, “Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person.” I want to be a new person. So how's God going to do it? By changing the way I think. Did you know that most of us are just a handful of intentional thoughts away from being better disciples of Jesus? Most of us are just a handful of intentional thoughts away from saying no to the way the world is crashing in upon us and squeezing us into its mold and actually having thoughts that would honor God.

Paul picks it up and even gets more specific in Philippians 4:8 when he says, “Fix your thoughts on what is true, honorable, right. Pure, lovely, admirable things that are excellent. Things that are worthy of praise. That's where we need to put our minds.

Thinking is one of the most powerful things you do every day, and where you fix your mind determines your decision-making. What you're thinking about determines what you decide, and what you do. It determines your relationships. Every quality of relationship you have is based on what you're thinking. It determines your whole life's happiness, and it even determines your destiny. That's why thinking is so important.
Think family first
When we say think family, what do we mean? Well, think family means you put your family lens on when you look at life. Now, you can put a lot of lenses on. In fact, we use lots of lenses and spectacles all the time. Yesterday, I paid the bills and so I had to think of my life through the lens of money. Last night I watched the Baylor game. They accidentally won. And so I was able to look through the lens of pleasure and enjoyment. And believe me, I've looked through the lens of depression before when I've watched Baylor play.
We always look at life through a certain lens. But if you look at life through the lens of family, then your family becomes one of the major factors in how you do everything else in your life. It determines how you frame values, it determines how you make choices. So I ask you a question today How prominent is family When you make decisions?

It should not be the number one value. Jesus should be the number one value because otherwise, we love our family more than Jesus. So we're called to think Christian, to think about life through Jesus' eyes, and to allow him to filter everything that we do. But not far below that is family. So what do you think family means? Well, I think it means several things first.
The family is a gift
I think family means that you see family as a gift from God. When I say family, I'm talking about going before us and coming behind us. We start with parents. Your parents or how you got here. They're your heritage. If you're proud of your parents and you're thankful for your Christian family heritage, praise the Lord. That's a huge gift. If you're ashamed of your parents and embarrassed by your heritage, then can you thank God that he's gotten you to this point in life, despite how difficult all of that was?

Here's the point. God wanted you to be born. You're not here accidentally. You're not in this world because it just happened to appeal to two people to be involved in a deep sexual level. And therefore, nine months later, you come into the world. You're here because God wanted you to be born. Your parents are the means by which he got you here. That's what comes before your heritage.

Here's what comes after what we think about family. Your children are what you leave here. They are your legacy. You're the one that gets to show them how to value their mind and their spirit over their body. Because there's not one message they're getting from their peers or from TikTok or all the rest of the social media that says that your mind is important or that your spirit is important. The only thing all of those messages tell your children, whatever age they are, is your body is the one all-important thing.

You're the one that gets to change that and say, that is not true. That's a lie. I promise. So they are your legacy.

But there's a third reason why you need to see family as a gift from God because your family is ground zero for following Jesus. It is the best place in the world to become a true disciple of Christ. You learn more about how to follow Jesus in your home than anywhere else. And you know why? Because it's in the family that you realize how many failures you have.

Denise and I got married at 22. We knew everything about the world when we got married, and I was a decent Christian from 18 to 21. Then I got married. Then I was a pathetic Christian because I realized how selfish I was. Someone has said that when you get married, it's like there's a full-length mirror in front of you every day revealing your flaws.

Next steps
In Deuteronomy 6:5-7 Moses said, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.” Remember, Jesus changed that to mind, just to help people understand.
You must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands I'm giving you today. Repeat them again and again with your children. Talk about them when you're at home and when you're on the road, when you're going to bed and when you're getting up. This is how God sees family. Parents loving the Lord. Parents teaching their kids to love the Lord. That's why a Christian family is a gift from God. And that's the first thing we should think about.