Last year was the first year that all my family did not get to go home for the holidays. Oh I knew one day it would happen with everyone growing up and getting jobs, but still it just did not seem right to know that all my family would not be with me. In fact it made me sad.

Yet as I began thinking about the situation , it made me more aware of the fact that I want to do all that I can do to make sure that when this world comes to an end and we stand before our Lord, I want all my family to be there.

Yes I am speaking at this time about my physical family, my wife and children. You see I took on the role of leader when I got married and the role of father when we decided to have children.

It is true that each of us will stand in judgment based on what we do individually, but I will have to give an account for how I lead them.

I pray it will be a good report for all of us. I pray for God’s help that I will always point them in the right direction.

But not only do I pray and hope for my physical family's spiritual well being, I also pray and hope for my spiritual family's well being.

If I fail to teach God’s word in its fullest then I am failing as a servant of God. If I fail to live a life that portrays Christ to all, then I am failing as God’s servant.

Again it is my prayer that I will always live, preach and teach so as to show the way to heaven.

Husbands and fathers, I hope you will take to heart what I am saying in this short article. We have such a tremendous responsibility to our wives and children. I think we all need to take stock of what we have been doing to help our family spiritually.

Each time I do this I see ways I can improve, ways that I must improve. I have known men who seemed to think that everything would just take care of itself, but that is not true. I have God’s word to prove this point.

Notice these scriptures, "For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body… Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; … So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself" (Eph. 5:23 - 28). And then in chapter 6, Paul wrote, "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4). We must shine as lights for our children, all their lives. A time will come when they may not listen to us but we sure better be saying and showing to them the right things. They will need to be making decisions for themselves, but they still need an example to follow. Men we must be that example that is if "we want them all to go."

I know I need improvement in my leadership skills and in my life, and I pray often to God for His guidance as I lead my family, and as I live before my spiritual family. I pray for all of us that we will live lives before all that one day we will be allowed into the gates of heaven to live out eternity with our God.

I really want us all to go!

Don’t you?