Last week I volunteered in my grandson’s school library.  It was exciting to see how eager the kids were to find books.  Some even tired to check out more than the limit allowed.  It reminded me of how tender and fervent children are, and why Scripture says to “train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)

Parents have an awesome responsibility. God has given them the mandate to raise up Godly seed for Him.  It’s a hard road, with much against them; rewarding when accomplished, but disastrous when not. Even so, every parent is training up his child whether he knows it or not. And either that child will be for God or for the world.

The Bible tells us “that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more that lovers of God.” (2 Timothy 3:4) Wow! What a terrible description of the worldly character!

It breaks my heart to see young people today who are a product of a rudderless upbringing, sailing along with no direction or sure course.  They are told, either implicitly or indirectly by what they learn in their home, school, on T.V., in movies, or on the streets, that they have crawled out of the primordial ooze and are nothing special, that there is no God, that self is the only thing that matters. No wonder they are depressed. No wonder their character is warped. No wonder they do drugs or sex to find significance. It must make God weep to see such precious lives destroyed, such precious hearts yearning and yet not finding anything of value in this dark world.

But here’s the great thing about God.  He has a Father’s heart and is the God of second chances. There is a sizable revival going on among the youth today.  Many are world-weary and have tried it all and found nothing but emptiness. But oh, how God loves them! How He desires to fill them with Himself. And how able He is to restore the broken hearted.  But wouldn’t it be better if these children had not lost their way in the first place?

I pray a blessing on all parents (and grandparents, too) that they find the courage, grit, love and strength to stand for Godliness in their homes, and train up their children for the Lord.

Until next week,

Sylvia

One of the things I love most about being a grandparent is that I have to do so little disciplining.  That’s not to say I don’t discipline when I must, it’s to say I don’t overly concern myself with teaching my grandchildren their “please” and “thank-yous” and all the countless other things that go into the good moral training of children.  The reason I don’t concern myself is that my grandchildren have parents who do this, leaving me free to just love and enjoy them, and perhaps just train by example.  It’s a cushy arrangement and one I thoroughly enjoy.

Parenting on the other hand is a lot tougher. It’s a 24/7 kind of job; a sloughing-it-out-in-the-trenches kind of role which is, for the most part, thankless, at least until the kids are old enough and mature enough to understand the value of discipline. 

Most parents have a heart of love toward their children and just want to shower them with affection, gifts, privileges, but instead find themselves in a position of having to correct, withhold privileges, lecture.  It’s called “tough love” and it’s wearing. But unlike grandparents, parents don’t have the luxury of spoiling and pampering, not if they really love their children and want them to grow up the best they can be and fulfill their God-given destinies.

Nothing helped me quite understand the parenting heart of God until I became one. And nothing makes me more sympathetic because unlike us earthly parents where there is a point in time when our job is finished and we can do no more, God’s job as parent is never done.  He still must discipline us when He would rather take us in His arms.  He still must correct and guide us, withhold those things we want for our own good, deal with our disappointment and anger because we don’t understand that what He is doing is needful. God is perpetual parent, never grandparent, never able to close His eyes to our misdeeds and spoil us anyway, but always loving us enough to do the hard thing. 

I am awed by this kind of faithful, steadfast love.  A love that doesn’t take the easy way out, doesn’t seek to please itself, but stays the long hard course of trying to mold us into something lovely.

Until next week,

Sylvia