Ephesians 6:4
And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Christian parents are obligated to raise their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. This command was given to Gentile Christians in Ephesus who did not have a robust history of Christendom to lean into. They had to build it from scratch. If there was going to be a Christendom, they were going to have to create it.
So, they did.
We find ourselves two thousand years downstream from those who received Paul's letter and others like it. We have a rich inheritance that has been largely squandered on loose living or taken for granted by entitlement. We have wasted the fruits of our father's hard work by waxing fat and kicking. Like the prodigal in the pig trough, we are now dead broke and the economy is falling apart around us. He was out of cash when in came the famine. But back home there was plenty. There was work to do and food for the asking.
The prodigal considered the pigs and headed for home. He had nothing left to eat but crow.
So, he ate it.
May we similarly see the swine and return to our Father's house empty-handed with hearts full of repentance.
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