How can I be faithful?
What do you think of when you hear the word faithful? Is the word ambiguous to you? Does it have several meanings? When you think of faithfulness do you think of your service to God, your marriage vows, or a good friend? If someone ask you to define the word faithfulness, what would your response be?
I am sure growing up each and every one of you have heard many Bible stories about faithful people. On the top of that list one might consider Job to be the best example, as he lost his family, his possessions, and his health, yet still remain faithful to God. Of course then we have David who was anointed by God to be the king over the Israelites, yet Saul pursued him with the intent to kill him. In the many years that David lived in caves, woods, foreign lands, he remained faithful to God in his heart, and the way he lived his everyday life. Another good example to faithfulness would be Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac, because it was what the Lord asked him to do. Because God saw the intent of Abraham’s heart he stayed his hand and provided a ram for a sacrifice, caught in the bushes nearby.
My mother was a stay-at-home mom of seven children. My father was a purchasing agent at a major company until they ask him to compromise his morals and he left employment. After that my father did not have any high compression jobs, therefore after retirement, he and mother lived on a very limited income. But if there’s anything my parents taught me it was faithfulness. This they taught by example, never failing to give their tithe, and even an extra offering when anyone was in need, and of course their service. After my father died my mother lost part of that income, yet she never failed to give money to the college students so they could do their laundry, send the needy child to camp, and remain faithful in serving her Sunday school department, women’s missionary society, and choir, until her death at the age of 98. She never said, I don’t know if I’ll be able to make ends meet if I give to the Lord, she had faith he would provide all her needs, and he always did.
I never doubted her love for the Lord or her faithfulness, and that legacy she left to me. My question is, what kind of legacy of faithfulness am I leaving for my children and grandchildren? Do I tithe faithfully? Yes. And I willingly sing at church whenever I am asked. I try to never miss a Sunday whether I am at home or away. The person people see at church, is the same person they will see in my home. I tried very hard never to put on airs no matter where I am. Am I doing everything I can to be faithful? No, I am sure there is room for much improvement. I am privileged to have one of my mother’s Bibles, and as I was flipping through the pages I would find scraps of paper. On the scraps of paper would be people that my mother would lift up to the Lord in prayer. On one piece of paper it said; my grandson has a new girlfriend I pray that she is a Christian. Another piece said: pray for the farmers, that they will get the rain the need so they have a bountiful harvest. There were many more scraps of paper but quoting each one would be redundant, it was all about prayer for other people.
As parents will our children be able to pick up our Bibles and find our faithfulness written in the margins? How can we teach them to be faithful if we are not faithful ourselves, in our prayer, in our church attendance, and our tithing? (The Bible tells us: Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.) Are you faithful in saying grace before you eat? Do you say grace at home but not in public? What message are we sending to our children about faithfulness? What legacy are we leaving to our children? Is it something you are going to be proud of, or wish it was something that was buried with you? Something to think about!
We as writers have to be faithful to our craft. If we don’t practice it, we become dull or rusty. We also need to be faithful to a moral code of which we can be proud. Just that it is hard to live down a bad reputation of a relative, it can also be a challenge to live up to a stellar reputation also. My advice would be to form your own path based on truth and honor, and be faithful to each.
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Hebrews 12:1
A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.
Proverbs 28:20
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
I Corinthians 10:13
He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.
Luke 16:10
His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
Matthew 25:21