Hope for Imperfect Families From the Story of Josephნიმუში

Day 2: Family Feuds

We may have a long-standing TV game show that says otherwise, but family feuds are far from entertaining. Whether it’s sisters who refuse to speak to one another, children who have gone “no contact” with their parents, or factions within an extended family that take sides and draw hard lines, sometimes our families expose the very worst of our sinful nature.

Read Genesis 30:1-2.

Rachel and Leah didn’t get the family they longed for. Leah had to live without a husband who only had eyes for her. Temporarily, Rachel didn’t get a womb filled with the babies she longed to hold. Neither of them had a relationship with their sister that provided comfort from the many demands of life.

Genesis 30 is fraught with dysfunction. It records that the sisters were always fighting over who got to sleep with their shared husband. They kept pushing their servants toward him so he could have sex with them too and give them children. Yuck. But this is also the chapter where Scripture introduces us to Joseph.

Read Genesis 30:22–24. Joseph’s name means “he will add.” Even as she held her first baby boy in her arms, Rachel was still longing for a different kind of family.

Jump out of Genesis for a moment to Psalm 84:11. Zero in on the last promise recorded in this verse:

No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

This is not always a comfortable truth to apply. When you long for a godly spouse, it can be difficult to understand why your mate’s heart remains hard. When you ache for a baby, it can be painful to grasp why God hasn’t yet granted that request. The Lord’s shoulders are wide enough to handle our wrestling with such painful realities, but we can also learn to trust that the family we have has been filtered through the loving hands of a generous God. This frees us from the turmoil our foremothers must have experienced as they chronically longed for a different kind of family.

What if it’s not the circumstances of our families that most need to be changed, but our attitudes? And what if, before anything else, our hearts need to be reoriented—not toward our children and siblings, but toward God? What if contentment, based on the goodness and faithfulness of God, is the salve our families need most?

To wrap up today’s plan, meditate on 1 Timothy 6:6–8.