“If I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth<\/em>” (I Timothy 3:15).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Broken families and absent parents are some of the biggest factors in children growing up to have issues with alcohol abuse, drug abuse, violent crime, mental and emotional health issues, behavioral and developmental challenges, and economic struggles. How ironic it is that the world sees so clearly the need and desire for family, yet is on a relentless crusade to break apart the family and redefine it. What an absolute travesty to watch the world tear apart the very thing they look for so desperately.<\/p>\n Yet, regardless of what home and family life we grew up in, we are all invited into the household of God, to be sons and daughters of the Most High and brothers and sisters of each other. The church is not to be a social or recreational group, but one that truly behaves as the household of God and loves each other as themselves. What an unparalleled blessing! May we never take it for granted.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Chadwick Brewer “If I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth” (I Timothy 3:15). I believe that there is an innate desire and need for family, to have a place where you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[448,173],"class_list":["post-89370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-church","tag-family"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":89642,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-godly-family\/","url_meta":{"origin":89370,"position":0},"title":"The Godly Family","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 23, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Marc Hyde When you think of family, you think of being close, doing things together, and looking out for one another. You care for one another, look out for each other, and want to see each other do good and succeed. You do not like to see others hurt\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":84412,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/unwritten-pains\/","url_meta":{"origin":89370,"position":1},"title":"Unwritten Pains","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Chadwick Brewer \"And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets\" (Mark 1:19). In Scripture, there is not much exploration of the bond between James and John. That is not to say that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67897,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-blessing-and-a-heritage\/","url_meta":{"origin":89370,"position":2},"title":"A Blessing and a Heritage","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Chadwick Brewer \"Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward\" (Psalms 127:3). For most of history, having a large family was viewed as a blessing. For example, when Job's wealth was listed in Job 1, his most prized and valuable blessing from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/family-300x200.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":87183,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-cousin-is-upset-that-i-didnt-invite-her-to-my-wedding\/","url_meta":{"origin":89370,"position":3},"title":"My cousin is upset that I didn’t invite her to my wedding","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 20, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello Pastor, I have a question that has been on my mind recently.\u00a0I was reading in Matthew something like, \"If your brother has something against you, leave your offering at the altar and reconcile.\"\u00a0I remembered a circumstance that happened a while ago, and it's worrying me if I'm right\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14219,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-address-the-criticism-of-the-church-by-a-family-member\/","url_meta":{"origin":89370,"position":4},"title":"How do I address the criticism of the church by a family member?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I am a member of the body of Christ and it disturbs me greatly that people within my physical family, as well as my spiritual family, are saying that God never founded the church of Christ. Below you will find a few correspondences sent to me by a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12727,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-does-god-view-switching-congregations\/","url_meta":{"origin":89370,"position":5},"title":"How does God view switching congregations?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 10, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good morning, Mr. Jeffrey! My husband and I have decided to switch our church membership to another local body of believers. God says that He places each member how He sees fit (I Corinthians 12:18), but I cannot find a biblical reference to how God moves people to different\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/family2-192x300.jpg\")
I believe that there is an innate desire and need for family, to have a place where you belong, are cared for, and loved. We see this from the moment of birth, in the fact that we need physical touch and affection to survive and thrive. We see this when we choose to name our closest friends as ‘family.’ We even see desire when companies advertise for positions available when they say, “Join our family.”<\/p>\n