Building a strong and godly family is not for the unprepared. If you’re still unstable in your walk with God, you will ruin your family. If you’re still unsettled in your faith, you will poison your children. I don’t mean poisoning them in a physical sense; I am referring to things like a terrible attitude, using the wrong words, or being a bad example. If you are not grounded in the ways of the Lord, you will end up making a mess of their lives.

It is important that you first become established in the truth and are made whole in the Lord. That you’ve grown a beard doesn’t mean you can start a family; there is more to being a father than mere physical maturity. A good paycheck also is not the only criterion required for being a great parent; children have needs that go beyond the material. You have a seventy-bedroom mansion? While that sounds interesting, it is not enough. And of course, that you are seventy nine years old doesn’t automatically imply that you have the wisdom to raise a strong and godly family. You have to be firmly established in the ways of the Lord.

As an aside, this is also the problem with churches today. A lot of people are pastors over congregations who have no business being pastors. Apostle Paul, who planted a lot of churches in his time and wrote a lot on church growth, had this to say:

“Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. Now the overseer must be above reproach…he must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?
~I Timothy 3:1-5

Before you are placed over the congregation of the people of God, you must have first of all proven that you can handle your own family. You must be able to manage your own household; your wife should be submitted to you and your children obey you with proper respect.