Family Correlation

This is not related to the last post. ;-D

This morning at CC we talked about the passage in 1 Timothy that qualifies leadership in the church based on leadership at home (within the family). Here are the verses - chapter 3, verse 4 & 5.

He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?)

Tall order! I am now looking back since my 3 children are adults. But I can see where I've been and what I've gained. The rigorous dynamics within the family are useful in leadership settings - especially in a multi-leadership context. You learn the virtues mentioned in the other verses preceding these verses (especially in the rearing and upbringing of the various mutations revealed in offspring).

It occured to me that before I became a husband and a father, I thought I had keen insight that qualified me for effective leadership. I didn't know how sophmoric I was until I began to work with other young developing leaders. I realized they didn't have the needed domestic resource that is critical in honing the virtues of "temperance, self-control, respectability, hospitality, teachability, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money" (vv 2 & 3).

What a valuable staple spouse and children are. No wonder God said to be fruitful and multiply. Survival of humanity has much broader benefits than merely occupying the earth.