Daily Devotional
Are You Protecting Your Family?

July 13, 2024

Ponder This

I once heard about a man in the Blue Ridge Mountains who caught rattlesnakes for a living. One day he caught a huge rattler that had a rattle with fourteen segments. He put it in a box with a glass top on the box and was out in the fields plowing when his little boy slid the top off that box where that rattler was coiled. The rattlesnake sprung out of that box and planted his fangs in the cheek of that little boy. The little boy ran out of the house and into the yard to tell his father what had happened. The father watched the boy’s face begin to swell and then the child died.

Devastated, the man lifted his voice in anguish and said, “I would not trade my sons for all the rattlesnakes in the Blue Ridge Mountains.” The company of the rattlesnake felt so harmless tucked away in a box, but it was still deadly. We cannot play with vices that will destroy our children. There is serious danger in letting sin have a foothold in our families. We may think, “It is just my problem to deal with.” But sin will hurt us and everyone around us if it is not surrendered to God and dealt with in His way.

• What are some sin struggles you do not want to pass down to the next generation?
• What are some ways we justify sin even though it has terrible effects on our lives and on our families?

Practice This

Confess your sin to God and repent.