a blessing and encouragement

This past weekend I had an amazing opportunity. If only for but a moment. I got to stay with a family for one night. You are probably saying so whats the great opportunity, what's the big deal about staying with a family? Now you see that this was not just any family. I've spent a lot of time with many families, seeing how they interact with each other. Now, there is something about me you should know. When I am with a family, I watch them, and observe closely how they interact with each other, and with others. I want to understand how the parents love their children, how they encourage them to grow. I want to understand how the children love their parents and submit to their authority. I want to understand how the children love the Lord, and want to serve Him. Now i have spent time with many families, who bicker and argue. Husbands and wives who seek their own benefit rather than the good of their spouse. Parents who seek their own blessings rather than the blessings of their children. Children who are too concerned with their own desires than to seek to love their parents. Parents who are too concerned with their own vacations too want to spend time with their kids. But not all the families I have spent time with are so flawed, I have seen many husbands who love their wives compassionately and sacrificially. I have seen wives love their husband and kids so affectionately with so much care. But this family I spent time with was different. No, don't get me wrong, Im not trying to put them on a pedestal and say they have no flaws. We all are in process of learning and growing deeper in our spiritual maturity. But they were just closer than the rest I've seen. The father, was a leader. He was a strong man, who didn't feel the need to exert his strength or authority, which actually added to his authority. He was a fisher of men, and discipled men and women to be fishers of men. He loved his wife with humility, meekness, and strength. After a late night of loving young believers and shepherding them to evangelize he woke up early to spend time with the Lord in the scriptures and in prayer. He then continued to clean the house before his wife awoke. His wife displayed a gentle submissive love to her husband. She was so loving to everyone in her home, even though we kept her up late, she enjoyed being able to serve and love those, whom her husband shepherded. It was an amazing thing, as they understood what each other lacked, and the other took up slack in that area so that they could better represent Christ together. They loved their children, encouraging their growth, as the father brought his son along with him in ministering to these young believers, so that his son could understand the importance of discipleship and so one day when the son leaves his fathers household he would continue the work of the gospel. I have only spent a little amount of time with him, but he radiates a joy for the Lord. He is still young, but he has the makings of a great man within him. Their youngest daughter is filled with a joy that can only be understood as a joy in Christ. She is loving and excited. Her interactions with her father are full of love and submission. Not in a submission that is forced and bleak, but in a joyous submission as Christ submits to the father, and the church submits to Christ. Submission because her father loves her unendingly, because her father knows what's best, submission because she loves her father. Her interactions with others show her meekness and humility, not because she is weak because surely she is filled with strength but because she is full of the Love of Christ. And I have had the great opportunity to know their oldest daughter. And I thank God for her, for she is an amazing sister in the Lord. She has such a heart for the gospel and for evangelism. She is bold in her preaching. She has no fear of man, or his rejection. She is never ashamed of the gospel. She is filled with adventure, and doesn't let fear overtake her. Her trust is in the Lord. She is humble and meek, loving, and strong. She has a passion for the scriptures, and her life is marked by prayer. She honors her father and her mother, and values their authority over her that God has entrusted to them. When I see her serve her brothers and sisters down at school I stop and thank God for the father and mother He has given to her, that she was raised in the Lord. I do not wish to imply that everything was always so cheerful, there may have been hard times, but I know that they have grown through those trials, they have grown closer to the Lord through them. I am so thankful for the time that i spent with this family, even if it was only one night.