This is a picture of God giving me a glimpse of his promises. Mark and I used to pray persistently about our sons loving God’s word. We saw no evidence that this would happen...none, whatsoever.
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV
We asked the Lord to give our boys a love for his word. That the Bible would be their bread and water.
“Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ””
Matthew 4:4 NIV
As I have grown older, God has gently revealed that many times Mark and I wanted to depend on legalism and not faith to raise our kids. We tried to do all the “right” things that would ensure 100% success in our sons in their walk with the Lord. We don’t have to look very hard to see some amazing Christian pastors and leaders to grieve as their children as they walk away from the Lord.
Here is the part that puzzles me and we experienced this in our own life...when children walk away from the Lord, we scrutinize the parents and look for what they did wrong. When one of our sons rebelled for a time, someone said, “I bet you should have not back to teaching when you did.” I lived with shame for so long because there must have been some rules that I did not follow.
Never lose sight of the fact that God calls our children! Never forget that God has plans for our children! The Holy Spirit convicts our children if they accepted Christ, not us. There are so many stories, if you are brave enough to look, for rebelling people not following godly parents in the Bible.
I can remember this thought when I read about God hardening Pharaoh’s heart when the children of Israelites walked out of Egypt. I thought if this was one of my kids that their hearts were hardened, I will plead until God answers me to soften their heart. If I don’t see the answer until heaven, that’s how long I will plead.
Keep in mind. No. Evidence. Whatsoever.
But that is not the way God operates. We do not pray with the evidence sitting right before us. That is not faith. Faith is the unseen.
Years and years later, my boys love the word. This is one of my grandsons. He has a new Bible. He wanted a real Bible, not a kid’s Bible. He is glued to it. When he becomes a teenager and perhaps lays it down for a few years, Mark and I are going to remind God,”Remember, you have trained us to fix our eyes on the unseen. We have seen how this works.”
We are counting on the Lord and not good parents or grandparents. You probably need to count on the Lord and not your perfect parenting too.😃
“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”
3 John 1:4 NIV
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