What can a person learn from living within a family?

Jason Dohm explains in this video that in a family, you know each other. You see each other at their best and at their worst. Family members see each other at all times throughout the day.

We can each put on different fronts when we're outside of the home and amongst others, but it's difficult to maintain it within the home. Parents can use times when children act sinfully to point them to the Gospel -- we each are in need of a Savior. We cannot hide our sin or somehow pretend that we deserve salvation.

Colossians 3:12-14 (NKJV) - "Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection."

A living in close quarters in a family is really beneficial in this way. You know each other. So we all put on fronts at certain times, but it's hard to maintain that front under the roof of a home because we see each other in so many life situations across so many hours of the day. This is really a help. This helps parents to help their children because they don't see each other just at church when we're all on our best behavior, but they see each other when things are going wrong or where our wills or desires are being crossed.

So this gives parents an opportunity to see their children in conducting themselves sinfully and to address sin in their lives. This is a great help because it helps us to point our children to the gospel. The pretense that we're all okay and we really don't have any significant needs comes down in the home. So we should thank God for what life in close quarters the opportunities that it gives to us. You