Over 25 years ago as a new bride, God highlighted Jeremiah 51:20 to me. I started declaring over my family that we would be as a battle axe in the hand of God to slay His enemy. It just sounded cool. It sounded “right.”
A battle axe is often the weapon of choice for a knight or prince advancing his kingdom. It is a long staff with a double axe head on the end. Often at the very tip of the staff was also a spearhead used to bring damage to the enemy from all directions.
Our family is a battle-axe in the hand of God. It is our purpose. It is WHO we are. And because of who we are, we do damage to the enemy for the One WHOSE we are. It is our identity and from our identity, we find our purpose.
Growing up, as soon as our kids asked Jesus into their heart, their relationship with Jesus was their responsibility. However, we did give them boundaries to help develop discipline to discover who and whose they are. One was a connect time with Jesus every day. As a young adult, Bethany called me and thanked us for helping her establish this in her life. She said, “Other Christians struggle with time with Jesus. Me? It’s just who I am. It’s who we are.”
God has a strategic purpose for your family. What is your family identity? God intended the family to be intricate in the development of our identities and in enforcing His Kingdom on earth. After all, His Kingdom is family. We are not subjects, but rather sons and daughters. And we have the only perfectly good, all powerful Father.
I’d encourage you to establish your family identity in the Kingdom. This is legacy. We discovered our family values that we call our stakes – immovable. Here are ours to help you in your journey:
- Family – we are a force in the Kingdom. Children participate in the Kingdom. We have an open home. We live honestly and transparently before others. We hold to being connected, engaged, and accountable. We respect each other and while we tease, we also respect our individual uniqueness that makes us a powerful family.
- Everyday we set aside time to think and engage with God alone.
- We live naturally supernatural in our words and our actions.
- We have a global perspective.
- We desire to live life well with good character, not compartmentalizing spiritual from secular.
- We live generously, recognizing God owns everything, even our children, and we are His stewards.
Family is God’s idea. Seek the Creator of your family. Find Whose you are so you can discover Who your family is and your family’s purpose. Identify the uncompromising stakes (values) in your family. Write them down. Set up boundaries to establish your values. Live life well unto God!
God has honored our simplicity of heart in all our successes and failures. Our family is spread out in every direction all over the globe. We all travel to be an ingredient to help magnify His Kingdom in the nations. Our kids, our legacy, are bringing the Kingdom to the business sector, education, the church world, leaders, and the lost. They help people develop physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. They live in Polish culture, the Border culture of Texas near Mexico, and the far West Texas culture. God is yielding the battle axe He has fashioned out of the Boyd family and changing the world.
God has purpose for families and God has identity and purpose for YOUR family.
