家庭的回忆
在我们每天的生活裡，我们都在製造记忆。每天都添加更多到这些回忆裡，渐渐就决定了这些回忆的最终性质。我们时常与儿女孙子们围坐在一起聊家裡常，回忆往事。我们在一起时，有欢笑有哭泣，赞美神赐给了我们美好的家庭。耶稣也曾哭。会有人这样问说，“你还记得那是在什么时候吗？”我想耶稣基督伤心原因的一部分是因他离开了天上父亲的家成为人子来到这世上受苦。耶稣爱世上的儿女，甘心成为人子，但是祂想念在天上父亲的家，祂想念天上的荣耀与喜乐。这荣耀与喜乐必定是将来我们到天上时所会有的情景。我们是不断地在製造回忆，而在这製造的过程也决定了我们生活的方式。我们的回忆会影响着我们的晚年是快乐或是不快乐。回忆所做的就是那些！我们最美好的回忆应该是自己与孩子们在我们的基督家裡的日常家庭生活的点点滴滴，是关于自己的与关于我们儿女们的回忆。
家庭回忆应该是包括有… 我们一起分享的时间，这些用餐时的，祷告时的,及游戏时的回忆。包括我们一同去过的旅游，包括我们所养的宠物以及我们所经历的欢乐与所面对过的争战等等。有时，我们会有矛盾冲突，我们在聊的时候也谈到这些。以一个家庭而言，我们一星期内的每一天都在製造回忆，因为你不知道哪一天你所造的是最后的回忆。生命是如此的不定，我们无法知道什麽时候是我们的最后一起用餐，是最后的交谈，最后的一起散步。我认识有一家人，他们在彼此间的每个电话上，在电子邮件裡，在留言中以及在道别时都以“爱你”来结束。…千万不要在你离开家出门时还有任何的误会还没有被解决，还有苦毒的话语或赌气的沉默没有被化解的；因那这些东西可能成为你一生永远的痛苦记忆。护卫家庭的最有效的几个字，是我曾经提到过的: “对不起”，“请你原谅” 和“我爱你”。“回答柔和，使怒消退；言语暴戾，触动怒气”（箴言15:1）。
有一个故事说到有一个善良温和的年轻人离开家去工作。不到一个小时，他的身体被送回家来。在建筑工地上他所踩的支撑架摊塌了，他不幸在意外中死了。家人哀痛逾恆，其中一个妹妹比家里的任何人都伤心。这妹妹似乎有一个特有的悲伤，哭泣不能停止，抽搐的说，“哥哥..早上..出门时，我对他凶..没有待他好。”
回忆！一旦被造成了，就是永恒的了，无法被改变了。
孩子也有他们的回忆
我游历过许多大城市，看大批的群众在街道上来来去去，在大楼裡进进出出。看人们在各自不同的方向熙来攘往，我已经习惯了。每次我都被提醒，他们每一个人的内心里面与他们的生命裡，都承载着他们来自原生家庭的印像。
你的孩子将会对于家庭有什么样的记忆呢？在他们的记忆里父母亲是个爱主的基督徒吗？父母有不断的寻求圣经作为生命的引导吗？你孩子们的记忆是安慰，激励，鼓舞和祝福吗？或是灼烧，伤烫和苦毒与咒诅的记忆吗？我们必须正视面对这件事，要确实知道我们所送出家门`进入世界的的孩子们，他们是永远不会忘记家庭的记忆的，是永远无法逃离家庭对他们的影响的。如果孩子们的童年的家庭真心真实而甜蜜的话，这美好记忆会是祝福，伴随他们一生的生命，一直赐福他们。
“罪恶可以如毁灭的烈火那样横扫灵魂；悲伤可以浇熄一切的喜乐和希望；但一个甜蜜幸福的家庭回忆长存不灭，犹如深夜里燃烧的孤星。即便是在罪恶之中，家庭回忆的影像如同已消失的梦一样，依然漂浮在我们脑海里。”
这里是有一个人的见证：“我记得在无数的夜晚里，当我静静躺在楼上小房间快要睡着前，楼梯会有轻轻的脚步声，门会静静的打开，一个熟悉的身影滑过黑暗然后出现在我床边。最先是疼爱的询问关切，逐渐是深度辅导的话语。然后母亲跪下来，头挨近着我，那最热切的期盼和希望会从她的祷告中流出来。… 母亲对儿子的期盼是何等的大啊！她的眼泪说出了她对孩子的殷殷期望。我知道她流泪，因为她的泪滴有时落到我的脸颦上。之后她起身，给我一个晚安吻，就走了。”
像那样的回忆是父母能留给孩子的最宝贵礼物。这些记忆将成为堡垒护卫着他们，防范世上的引诱与犯罪。这美好回忆就如一条金项链把孩子绑在神的脚前。用这样的记忆来填补孩子的生命，是不是非常值得呢？然而我们身为父母的是多麽粗心！ 多麽怠惰，多麽疏忽啊！上帝啊！求你饶恕，求你帮助我们！
吸引这个家庭更亲近神。被圣洁所纯洁了的悲伤能转化一个家庭，并带来更多与神的同在。所以经常是悲伤的记忆在后来被证明是温柔又坚固的扣环，牢牢地扣住每个家人的心。
在结束这系列之前，有几件事是我们永远不能忘记的。如果我们想要拥有应当有的回忆，我们必需要有主耶稣在我们的家庭中。应该有一个家庭祭坛，每天有一段时间，家人聚集在一起读经，听的神的话语并一起祷告。在21世纪的今天，我们正迅速的走过这个世界。很快你会发现，留下来的将唯有我们生命的回忆。而能够带给我们平稳，给我们方向及生命意义的最坚固基础，是一个基督徒家庭。（哥林多前书3：11-13）
有一个美丽的故事讲到音乐家莫扎特。他最后的音乐作品是他的安魂曲。经过了几天的被病魔折磨，以及辛劳的创作，终于完成了这曲子。当他填上最后一个音符时，他漂亮的女儿艾米莉正好走进房来。莫扎特把手稿递给她，说，“好了，我可爱的艾米莉啊，稿子已完成了；我的安魂曲已经完成了，我也是，也结束了。”
“亲爱的爸爸，别这麽说”，温柔的艾米莉说，“你今天看起来更强壮。”
“我的病是不会在好起来的。” 她父亲回答，“但，艾米莉，你来，坐在钢琴上弹弹这首曲子，用圣母的讚美诗来唱给我听听。”
艾米莉顺服父亲的指示，带着温柔的情感，甜美的声音，她唱了出来。
然后，当她完成时，她从钢琴上转过身，期待着父亲讚许的微笑; 却只看到安息在他的脸上。父亲去世了，他乘着他自己安魂曲的翅膀回天家了。
听我说，没有任何安魂曲，在人的尘世生命的最后的片刻对于心灵的安宁，能如神圣家庭回忆的安魂曲那样的甜美，那样的安慰人，那样的赐福。它会让心中的音乐比天使的歌更甜美。愿神帮助我们在家裡的生活能如此的甜蜜。人一生中最好的奖赏之一是，我们的儿女孙子和后代他们遵循我们建立基督家庭的榜样，在家裡耶稣基督是家人们经常邀请来的贵客，而主耶稣宝贵的话语是我们生活的标准和生命的引导。让我们建立一个基督化家庭，“为自己积成美好的根基，预备将来，叫他们持定那真正的生命。”（提摩太前书6：19）
让我们的努力目标证明出这一事实。…人间最近似天堂的，是基督徒家庭！
The Memories of Home
As we live each day, we are making memories. Every day adds to them and determines more fully their final character. Often, we sit for hours with our children and grandchildren, talking about our home and reflecting on the past. When we are together, we laugh, cry and praise the Lord for the great home He has given us. Inevitably, someone says, “Do you remember when?” Part of the sorrow and suffering of Christ here upon the earth is to be accounted for by the fact that He was away from His Father’s home. He liked the children of men, but He missed the glory and joy He haSaved in His Father’s house. This must be a part of what Heaven will be like. We are constantly making memories, and the process of making them determines the way in which we live. Our memories will make old age happy or unhappy. That is what memories do! Our fondest memories should be of our daily life in our Christian home, both our memories and those of our children.
Memories of the home should include the meal times, prayer times and game times that we shared. The trips that we took, the animals we raised and the fun and battles that we encountered. Often there were conflicts, and we shared them as well. As a family, we make memories every day of the week, for you never know when you are making the last of them. Life is so uncertain that we never know when we are having the last meal, last talk or the last walk together. I know of a family who ends every phone conversation, email, note and parting of company with “Love you”. Never leave the house in the morning if there has been a misunderstanding, bitter or ugly words, or sullen silence because those things may become a lifelong bitter memory. The best defense to the home is those eight special words we mentioned at the beginning, “I’m sorry,” “Forgive me,” and “I love you”. “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger” (“Proverbs 15:1).
The story is told of a young man with a kind and gentle nature who left his home to go to his job. He had not been gone an hour when his body was brought home. The scaffold upon which he was working had given way, and he had been killed. One of his sisters was more grief-stricken then the others. She seemed to have a peculiar sorrow. She could only say, “I wasn’t kind to him as he left this morning.”
Memories! When made, they are eternal and cannot be changed!
Children Have Memories Too
Having traveled to many large cities and watched the great crowds of people moving up and down the streets, in and out of large buildings, I have grown accustomed to watching people rush in every direction. Each time I am reminded that every one of them bears in their heart and life the impression of the home from which they came.
What kind of memories will your children have of home? Will they be memories of parents that loved the Lord Jesus Christ and continually sought the Bible as direction for their lives? Will there be memories of comfort, inspiration, encouragement and blessings, or will there be memories that sear, burn, bite and curse? We should face the matter squarely, being fully assured that the children we send out into the world will never fully escape from the memories and influence of the home. If the childhood home has been true and sweet, its benediction goes through all of life.
“Sin may sweep over the soul like a devastating fire; sorrow may quench every joy and hope; but the memory of a sweet and blessed home lives on like a solitary star burning in the deep of night. And even in the midst of sin, its picture floats before the mind like a vanishing dream.”
Here is the testimony of one man: “Many a night I remember lying quietly in the little upper chamber before sleep came. There would come a gentle footstep on the stair, the door would noiselessly open and a well-known form, softly gliding through the darkness, would appear at my bedside. First, there would be a few pleasant inquiries of affection, which gradually deepened into words of counsel. Then kneeling, her head close to mine, her most earnest hopes and prayers would flow forth in prayer. How largely a mother can wish for her boy! Her tears spoke the earnestness of her desire. I seem to feel them yet where sometimes they fell upon my face. Rising, with a goodnight kiss, she was gone.”
A memory like that is the greatest gift a parent can leave a child. It will be a bulwark to guard against temptation and sin. It will prove a golden chain binding the child to the feet of God. Is it worthwhile to fill a child’s life with memories like that? How careless we parents can be! How slothful, how negligent! God forgive and help us!
Sometimes, sorrow is not taken properly. If a home is a truly Christian home, sorrow does not put out all of the lights. It rather makes the home more tender and loving. It draws the home closer to God. Sanctified sorrow transfigures a home, and brings more of God down into it. So it often happens that the memory of sorrow proves to be the most tender and firmest clasp that binds home and hearts together.
As we close this, there are some things that we must never forget. We must have Christ in our homes if our memories are to be all that they should be. There should be a family altar where at some time each day all of the family gathers to hear God’s words and to pray together. In this 21st century we are quickly moving through this world. Soon all that remains will be the memory of our lives. The strongest foundation that will give stability, direction and purpose in our lives is a Christian Home (I Cor. 3:11-13).
A beautiful story is told of Mozart. His last musical composition was his Requiem. After days of illness and the most painful labor, it was finished. His beautiful daughter Emily came into the room just as he was writing in the last notes, and Mozart handed to her the manuscript, saying, “There, my beautiful Emily, it is finished; my Requiem is finished, and I too, am finished.”
“Say not so, dear father,” said the gentle Emily, “you seem stronger today.”
“I shall never be well again,” replied her father, “but here, Emily, sit at the piano and play these notes and sing them with the hymns of the sainted mother.”
Emily obeyed, singing with a voice made rich by the tender emotion.
Then, when she had finished, she turned from the piano, expecting the approving smile of her father; but she saw only the look of peace on his features and the seal of death. He had gone home on the wings of his own requiem.
Listen when I say, there will be no requiem so sweet to the heart in the last hour of earthly life as the requiem of blessed and hallowed home memories. It will make music in the heart sweeter than the song of angels. May God help us to live at home so sweetly. One of the best rewards will be our children, grandchildren and future generations that followed our example as we built a Christian home where Jesus Christ was the continuously invited guest and His precious Word was our standard and guide. Let’s make home a place where “Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life” (1Timothy 6:19).
Let our goals be evident of this fact. The nearest thing to heaven is a Christian Home!