As a child, my daughter Elisabeth, once asked us for a hamster as a birthday present. So we gave it to her, and she named it Bidule. She petted him, spoke to him, and was just in love with him.

One morning, while we were getting ready to go to church, my wife took Bidule out of his cage so that he could stretch and run around a bit on the balcony, but then she forgot him there! After a whole morning at church and a meal at a restaurant under a blazing sun, we finally returned home to discover that Bidule was in hamster heaven, dried up by Quebec’s summer sun.

You are deeply blessed if you have a devoted brother or sister with whom to pray. Indeed, the most powerful intercessors I’ve known have come in twos and threes. “I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:19, NKJV).

As I teach the Bible, I am perpetually amazed by its relevance to our family challenges in the 21st century. After all, the Bible is the only ancient book where the author is still alive. My faith and my confidence is fortified through the fights and trials that we traverse in the family of God because “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1, ESV), and “Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways!” (Psalms 128:1).

In practical terms, how do we learn to love others as Christ loves us? John writes, “Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, ‘Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.’ When Jesus heard that, He said, ‘This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was” (John 11:3-6).

The Bible is clear that in these last days, the church of Jesus Christ faces the wrath of Satan. He is hell-bent on destroying marriages, alienating children, pitting family members against each other with the simple goal of bringing ruin and destruction to every home he possibly can. Jesus referred to this demonic work when he described Satan, saying, “You are of your father the devil … He was a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44).