Command 19 : Choose the Narrow Way | Day 131

Focus on Your Goal!

The crowds in the stands were cheering wildly as their teams fought for the winning points. Suddenly one of the players fumbled the football. Another player scooped it up and began running toward the goal line. However, his teammates' excitement quickly turned to dismay as they watched him run toward the opponents' goal line! In the scramble he became disoriented and actually ran the wrong way. This Rose Bowl blunder earned this player the nickname "Wrong Way Riegel."

Running with all your might towards the wrong goal (or no goal) will not result in success.

Today's fathers are desperately trying to meet all the demands of their jobs and take care of many other obligations and pressures. Yet, while they are busy with their work, a disaster is taking place. Bright sons and daughters who have great potential to be used by God are being drawn into the traps of the world—trends of wrong music, wrong friends, wrong goals, and wrong decisions. Wives and mothers are frustrated with lack of purpose in their families and disillusioned by continual disappointments.

When there was no leader in Israel, every man did that which was right in his own eyes. (See Judges 17:6.)

Someone has wisely observed that if a businessman would manage his company the way a father manages his family, he would certainly go bankrupt. We cannot allow our most valuable "team members" to go in wrong directions because of our lack of effort to point them toward the right goal!

One father I know gathered his family members together and made a plan to establish their course. As a family, they discussed their God-given goals and the strategy they would follow to reach them. Some of the key points they addressed in their "family charter" were these:

• What is the purpose of our family? (Deuteronomy 6:5-7; Psalm 112, 127; and Matthew 5:13-14)
• What is the goal of our education? (Joshua 1:8-9; Psalm 1, 119:97-99; and I Corinthians 2:9-16)
• What is the purpose of our lives? (Philippians 3:10, Romans 12:1-2, and Matthew 28:19-20)
• What is the purpose of our money? (Malachi 3:10-12 and II Corinthians 8, 9)

It is vital that fathers accept the role of spiritual leader in their homes, and that their lives provide a clear model for carrying out Biblical goals and walking on the path of life. Developing your own "family charter" by writing out questions like these, and seeking the Lord together as a family to discover and determine their answers, will do more than you can imagine to build the unity of your "team" and point your family towards the right goal!