The great big family of God

Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.
(1 Timothy 5:1-2)

One of the many descriptions of the church in the New Testament is the family of God. In Matthew 12:46-50, Jesus responds to someone’s words that his family is outside waiting to speak to him by replying that “whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:50). Coming from the man who upheld the commandment to honor your father and mother, this is a shocking statement. To Jesus, and consequently to the New Testament church, all who believe in Jesus have been adopted into God’s family.
With this in mind, I want to challenge you to consider the children and teenagers in our church as your relatives – younger brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, or perhaps your spiritual children or grandchildren, depending upon your age. How can you play a part in encouraging them in their faith (besides teaching Sunday School, of course)? Obviously, you won’t be able to get involved in every child’s life, but it should be possible to try to find one family, or one child, that you can show some kindness to, pray for, or encourage.

In Kara Powell’s book The Sticky Faith Guide for Your Family, she writes about how important it is for a child or teenager’s faith to have other adults besides their parents who care about them. She lists some specific ways that adults can show kids that they care:

1. Ask them about school
2. Find out their extracurricular activity schedule and go to a game, recital, or show
3. Call them and sing to them on their birthday
4. Ask them how you can be praying for them. And then pray.
5. A week after you asked them how you can be praying for them, check back with them and find out how they’re doing.
6. Learn their top hobbies or interests, and then connect them with someone you know who can teach them more about what’s special to them.
7. Send them a card in the mail

Of course, if you want to be an encouraging adult in the life of your spiritual younger brothers and sisters, it is important to talk to their parent(s) about this when at all possible. But the bottom line is that when the church truly functions like a family, with the older generations caring for and encouraging the younger generations, we are loving each other as Christ loves us, and making it much more likely that the younger generations will have a positive view of the church and grow up wanting to continue in the faith. Prayerfully consider how you might take up this calling today.