Many years ago when my children were small we bought a home. It was a little place but I loved it because it represented permanence and stability. My husband and I had both grown up as “newspaper brats” and as such we moved frequently. We decided that was not the life we wanted for our family. We wanted a home base.
My kids went to public school and were constantly having fund raisers. It was one of these fund raisers that I found a door knocker for our new home.
Neither my husband or I were truly raised in church. We went sporadically while I was growing up and I am pretty sure he only went while staying with his grandparents. We went through some rough patches early on and it was during one of those rough patches we decided to change our direction and turn to God.
We had no idea we had been worshipping the “gods of the Amorites.” We were caught up in worldly things, fleshly things.
I think it’s interesting to note that Joshua, coming to the end of his life, noted that their fathers worshipped other gods “on the other side of the flood.” But once they came through that “Red Sea” experience and walked into the salvation from the their Egyptian captors, they left those “other gods” behind.
While we were very young with a baby girl, we drove over an hour to attend the church my brother was attending in Westlake, Louisiana. It was there we received the revelation of Who God is and once we reached the other side of the flood through Baptism in Jesus’ Name and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost we committed to serving Him and raising our family to know Him.
We strayed away for a time but once again we found ourselves at an altar making a commitment to Jesus and to our family.
It was after this time I bought that door knocker. At that time I was very unhandy and I asked my husband to please hang it on the door. I wanted everyone who crossed that threshold to know, without a doubt, what and Who we stood for.
He never hung it. I asked but there was always an excuse and he never found the time to do it. I repeated the request over and over until one day, years later in the midst of our broken family, I threw it away.
Because, you see, it was not his declaration.
As for him, he really didn’t want to serve the Lord. And he did not want that statement on the threshold speaking for him.
Simply because he did not want to let go of the gods of his fathers.
Even when it cost him everything, his family, relationship with his son, his health, he made a choice.
Like those Israelites leaving Egypt, he was clinging to those things on the other side of that flood of grace that destroyed the enemies of his heart.
When I talk to him he never fails to mention his father who has somehow become god-like in his life. That has become the standard he has set his goal of reaching.
And he will reach it.
It breaks my heart.
Today is the day I realized just why he never wanted that door knocker on our home. He didn’t want that declaration to identify his family as serving God. And as he brought things in and came home surrounded in things he should have stayed clear of, he didn’t have to walk past that statement and be reminded of the lie his life was making it.
Because of that choice, his own silent statement that I never heard with my heart, he has grandbabies he will never see. And, that is his choice, not his son’s. As for him, he wrapped the curses that had been applied to his family, a family that lost all but one member related to the iniquities of the flesh, around his shoulders like a banner, declaring to the world that he is supposedly his own man.
But, through this he raised a son who has determined in his heart to leave behind the gods of his father. His babies go to sleep every night hearing their Daddy pray over them.
He will be there as the Lord allows to see his own grandchildren live for God.
And, although there is no door knocker on their door, there is a peace that only comes from the Presence of God, that fills their space. His beautiful wife serves with him and has confidence in who he is.
I am thankful that my son and his house serve the Lord. I am thankful that curses that have plagued the men of a family for generations are gone. And, they are broken from the determination that the Lord WILL BE SERVED in that home. That is what it takes.
The determination to live a life pleasing to God. Not your flesh. Not this world or the gods of this world. Not caring one bit what anyone else thinks. And not wanting your children to be like their flawed parents or family members, but wanting them to grow in God.
Write it on the doorposts of your heart so that whatever tries to come in, whatever your flesh tries to invite in, it will know where you stand.
As for ME………
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