Family Barometer

After a few days of mild weather, I had to bundle up when I went for my walk.
My coat was zipped up to my chin.
I wore my hood with a scarf wrapped around to hold it in place.
Gloves that usually remain in my pocket were now on my hands.

I saw my neighbor getting his newspaper.
I think we’re going to get some snow.
Snow is in the forecast.
A dusting to possibly three inches of powdery snow is expected overnight.

A change in the weather.
Balmy days, not typical for this time of year, are now rapidly changing.
They are changing to more seasonal temperatures.
It is one of those days when the weather vane would change direction.

I have a weather vane in my home.
It is decorative and not a bit functional.
It sits on top of my armoire in my family room.
It always points the same way unless I happen to move it when I dust.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if my weather vane could detect a change in the atmosphere?
A change in the way we treat each other.
A change in our attitudes toward one another.
A change in the amount of love we show to one another.

A family barometer of sorts.
An object that when viewed, immediately tells me the state of my family.
A change in our family’s direction that is noted and obvious.
Obvious to anyone with eyes to see and anyone who knows where to look.

One of the most obscure scenes in the movie Mary Poppins contains a weather vane.
A weather vane that when watched by an old sea captain signified a change in the weather.
Symbolically prophetic in the storyline, a change was about to come to the Banks home.
A wind shift; a change of direction.

The old sea captain tells Mr. Banks that the wind is about to change.
That is an understatement.
Mr. Banks’ home will be turned upside down by the wonderful, practically perfect nanny.
Little does he know that Mary Poppins’ desire is to be replaced by him, their father.

She is temporarily filling the place that only he can have in the family.
The adventures that she takes Jane and Michael on will soon be shared with him.
Their father will one day understand their hearts that she knows so well.
The wind is indeed about to change.

I will only stay until the wind changes, Mary Poppins reminds the children.
We who know the story, realize that the family barometer is about to shift.
The family barometer needed to shift.
The family needed a new direction, one that is led by their father.

My husband volunteers each year to build homes.
He has built homes both nationally and internationally.
Something he has noticed has become a pattern.
It is a pattern that astounds me.

When I build internationally, the people are very poor but the family is intact.
When I build nationally, there is never any father present in the family.
What does that say about the state of the family in our country?
What would the family barometer indicate?

We need the winds to change.
The family barometer needs to change direction.
The cultural wind has to shift.
The status quo is not working.

Culture, media, and feminism have all sought to make the father obsolete.
Men are portrayed as unnecessary and weak.
God designed men to be so much more.
God designed men to lead their families in loving strength and tenderness.

Many men fall short.
Many men lack the role models they need to be the kind of men God intended.
Many women do not know how to walk alongside their husband as his helpmate.
The family weather vane is being culturally manipulated.

God knew that this issue of men and fathers would be a problem.
He knew that other things call the men away from the things of God.
Other things vie for their attention.
God desires men to turn their hearts towards home.

See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse. (Malachi 4:5, 6)

The winds must change.
God says so in His Word.
God gives us a family barometer in His Word.
It is up to us to read it, study it, and apply God’s Truth to our lives.

It has been said that as goes the family, so goes the world. It can also be said that as goes the father, so goes the family. (Voddie Baucham)

Mary Poppins only stayed until the wind changed.
The children, who would have flown a kite with her, now fly a kite with their father.
As it should be.
Their hearts were turned towards him and his heart was turned towards them.

Our families need prayer to fulfill the roles that God set out in His Word.
Hearts need to turn one to another, after turning first to Him.
Have you checked your family barometer lately?
Which way do the winds have to shift so that they are pleasing to God?

We all fall short.
We all need help to be the kind of family that God intended.
We need to begin with prayer and a willingness to change direction as we submit to God.
A family done God’s way is something the world needs to see.