One Saturday in March, my husband and I attended a young couples meeting and the preacher made a question towards the audience. If you are given something to look after, can we not take extra care to ensure it is kept safe until the owner returns?
Psalm 127:3 says children are a gift/ blessing from God. Their spirits are filled with innocence, joy, and laughter. We received the gift, and now we are entitled to take care of them and bring them according to God’s will. Sometimes we get overwhelmed in upbringing them. We are exhausted because we tend to do things all alone. We forget to get help from the creator, and we forget he knew better than us. He made each one of us according to his image. Genesis 1: 26 says, And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
We are often surrounded by guilt while upbringing our kids because we don’t ask for help from the person who breathed life into them. I was such a mom, I felt overwhelmed by my son’s antics. I say he is naughty, and he has high energy. But I often fail to ask God what I should do to make him calm. He knew I could handle him with his strength, and that’s why I have got an energetic child.
The preacher said a beautiful metaphor, and I was amused to know the Bible has answers for all. We get a new electronic gadget, and we are so happy to see how it works. We open it, and we think we knew about it, and we plug it in. Unfortunately, it gets repaired and the technician from the company says, did you read the user manual? Why didn’t you wait for us to come, and plug it in? Doesn’t it look familiar in our lives?
We often forget to look into the user manual given by God i.e. the Bible. We think we know all about parenting, and we forget he is the one who breathed us into life, and he knew everything. All we need is to ask him, John 14: 13 says, Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Philippians 4: 6 says, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
My husband always reminds me not to overthink certain things because the creator will do everything on time. I am the over-thinker of my family. I always like to prepare for the situation and think about what I should do when things don’t fall into their place. Likewise, I am often reminded of my husband by the verse in Luke 12:6, Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet no one of them is forgotten by God. It’s human to lose our trust in God and lament to people about our problems, but we can always call for help when we are broken down.
This reminds me of a person named Manova in the Bible. Manova is the father of the strongest man named Samson in the Bible. Judges 13 talks about Manova and his wife. They were childless for years, and one day the Angel of God came and said the good news to them. You will bear a son soon and, there are certain things you should avoid because you will be a Nazirite. Verse 8 says. Then Manova prayed to Yahweh and said, “Excuse me, my Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent again come to us and teach us what we should do concerning the boy who will be born.” And God listened to the voice of Manova, and an angel of God came again to the woman;
Let’s try asking Jesus like Manova, and he will definitely help us raise our kids. When we bow down in prayer, our God silences the heavens, and he will listen to each word of us. What I learn from Manova is just ask, and you will receive all the guidance from Jesus.
Now we have asked God for guidance and among that the important thing to do with our kids is to talk about the scriptures. Deuteronomy 6 beautifully talks about how we should teach our children about God. The passage talks about the Israelite’s victory over the Egyptians, and how they entered Canaan. The passage asks the parents to remember their days of struggle and how God helped them overcome it.
I love this passage. Deuteronomy 6: 4-8, clearly gives us advice on how to teach our kids about Jesus, and also to obey his words.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be in your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses, and your gates.
My mom always says the children will turn to God by seeing us. When we lead by example, we can encourage our children to recognize and respect the unchanging truth of God’s scriptures.
I will finish this message by saying why it’s essential to have children. We see children are a gift from God, He gave us to look after them, and to look after them we need to ask for guidance from him. We may think about why God is caring so much for young children, and why they are important in his eyes. Psalm 127: 3-5 says, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!”
Verse 3 tells us the importance of children in a household. What is the purpose of building a house when there is no one to inherit it? Or what gain is there when a man acquires so much wealth but has no heir? God gives children a favour. If He doesn’t give us children, the man remains childless forever with no one to inherit properties and most importantly his name.
Verse 4 says A man at war is glad when he sees a weapon. In the same way, children are their parents’ weapons, children are born as a gift to their parents at an early age. When they grow up they become their comfort. We must learn to teach our children while they are still young. So that when they grow, they won’t depart from it. Proper education is also an essential tool that aids in the upbringing of a child. But, a child who is not brought up in the way of the lord and not taught the proper values of how to behave in a society will be a pain and discomfort to his parents.
Verse 5 says children are like weapons, it is well to have a house full of them. This verse gives us a perspective to have many children, so that, the house will always be ringing with joy and laughter. But when the generation changes we start shrinking our family size, and we are struggling to raise them. So this verse asks us to hand over everything to God so that we can enjoy a life full of peace.
Raising kids is hard, I may write a lengthy passage, and make it look easy. But I do have bad days and I struggle to be a good mom. But I get reminded through the above verse, and I know it’s time to stop and give control to Jesus. He gave them to us and I know he will have a solution to all our problems. The simple way is to ask him, just like a kid who asks for chocolate from his parents, when we ask him, he makes our life easier.
I hope this passage will talk to you and I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
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