Has your home ever been burglarized? Years ago, I left work and went back home to get something around 10:00 AM. When I opened the door, I found our clothes piled knee deep down the hallway and into the bedrooms. The closets had been emptied and everything thrown to the floor. Jewelry boxes, drawers, and anything else that held our belongings were poured out everywhere. The invaders had been searching for valuables with absolutely no concern for our personal belongings. They managed to leave with a few hundred dollars-worth of items, but if they were looking for treasure, they had chosen the wrong house.
Perhaps what I remember most about that day is the feeling of having been violated. Uninvited strangers had been wandering around in a place that had been sacred to my family, treating our belongings as though they had no value whatsoever! My doors and windows had been locked and they had broken in against our will.
Have you ever felt violated? If so, it is a feeling you will likely always remember. But many times, we allow our families to be violated without putting up a fight. I’m amazed that so many will purchase burglar alarms, expensive locks, burglar bars and such to protect their more tangible treasures, yet leave themselves vulnerable to evil.
Proverbs 4:23 says that we should, “Keep our heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” We should be guarding our hearts. The word “heart” there simply means those parts of our being that make us who we are; our minds, our emotions, and our will.
Literally millions of times every day across this country, well-meaning Christians sit in their living rooms allowing the minds of their families to be invaded. They sometimes even laugh at the perpetrators as they do their evil deeds. This happens every time salacious media is allowed to be seen or heard unrestricted. Husbands and fathers have the higher responsibility here to guard the walls around their home by guarding the walls around the family’s minds.
This world will never change for the better until you and I change for the better. We cannot impact the world entire, but we can at least make a difference in our own homes.