I've often heard Christians say they put God first, even before family. I wonder how that manifests itself in the day-to-day life of a Christian. I can't imagine a situation in which you'd be forced to choose God over your family.
My wife me was a herion addict when we first met. She told me she was not using when we married. On the honey moon I found out she was. The next 4 years was hell on earth.
At first the family supported us and helped any way they could but over the years as she would be in recovery, and good for a month or so she would fall back in to the life style, over and over the cycle would repeat till one by one they all dropped away. Then it got worse. Because at some point both families could not understand why or how someone would stay with someone that absolutly everyone had given up on, unless I too was an addict. Then the demands that I divorce her started. Then the shunning to keep us away from the family/kids and gatherings...
So how is choosing my wife over my family choosing God?
Aside from my vow, God very easily on in all my prayers showed me a parallel between her sin, repentance, and fall back into sin, and my own. Then He locked me in with the parable of the unmerciful servant. The one about the servant who owe his master a huge debt and could not pay, as his master was to throw him in prision, he begged for forgiveness of the debt and the master forgave him.. Then the wicked servant went out and saw a fellow servant who owed him a much smaller debt. Even though the second servant asked him for forgiveness as he had asked his master, the wicked servant has the second servant thrown in prision. When the master found out he was furious and had the wicked servant thrown in prision.
I knew I was the servant who had been forgiven a much greater debt, and I knew my wife was a fellow servant who owed a much smaller debt to me. And I knew so long as she tried to get out of this and worked the programs, I owed her the oppertunity because my own sin against God far outweighs her sin against me.
How many times are we to forgive our neighbor? 7x70? I figure wives should get a little more consideration than we give a stranger/neighbor.
So I stayed with her and my vow to help her In and out of all the storms of life, and we came out on th otherside much stronger for it.
You may never be asked to choose as I did, but your heart needs to be in a place to choose God if you were. Otherwise know you are in violation of our greatest command. That is to love our Lord God with all of our being.