March 21, 2007

Parenting is one skill that has never been mastered and that can only be learned through experience. There are hundreds (and probably thousands) of books on the market on parenting. I believe God gave us children for many reasons. One, for the obvious continuation of life from one generation to another.

Secondly, to teach us how He expects us to walk with Him. When we examine our relationship with God we start to understand a lot of the things God says in the Bible when we realize that God is our “dad” and that we are his “kids.”

One continual theme throughout the Bible is obedience. God demanded obedience from the children of Israel, God’s chosen people, and there were repercussions when they disobeyed. That sounds just like my father right there! When he told me to cut the grass, it wasn’t a suggestion or something for me to think about and then decide what to do. It meant for me to stop whatever I was doing and cut the grass right now, or else!

Just as we don’t raise our children in a democracy, neither does God allow us as His children to be His equal. We’re supposed to allow Him to lead us and not to question when He calls us for a task to do.

 “A wise son makes a glad father”, it tells us in Proverbs 10:1. Isn’t that the truth? We love to tell other folks about how smart our kids our, and how great their achievements are!

God must have felt that way when He told Satan about Job. Here is how God described him in Job 1:8. “And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? What an endorsement!

 We know that God allowed Satan to take away everything valuable that Job had in his life. His oxen, asses, sheep and camels were all destroyed in one day. His children’s lives were taken the same day. The last thing taken was his health, and his body was covered in boils. His wife’s faith in God wasn’t great, for she suggested that Job “curse God and die.” But Job said “Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

 What is our response when things or people that we love are taken away? Job, as an obedient child of God, teaches us that God is to be praised in all things. David wrote in Psalms 34:1 “I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” Are you a whiny child of God who only praises God when things are going your way? Let’s grow up and maturely say together “For my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)

 Let’s be the kind of children to God that we want our kids to be to us – obedient and trusting!