Christian Foundations

DEVOTIONAL ARCHIVE

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by Dennis and Barbara Rainey

Psalm 127:4,5
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.

Parents today need God's perspective of children. I think many of us can relate to the story of a man who went door to door asking for donations for a new children's home. At one house he met a tired, beleaguered mother who responded, "I'll tell you what I'll do. I will give you two children."

That is how many people feel about children some days. On one hand we say, "We sure love kids." And then we turn around and complain, "They sure cost a lot, and man, you have to deny yourself to raise kids." It's as if we don't really believe ththat we are "blessed" when our quivers are full of children.

Children are divinely placed gifts, not accidents. They are a privilege. Barbara and I may sometimes feel that kids get in the way of life, but in reality they are part of the life that God is bringing to us everyday. They are on loan with a divine purpose.

A man saw three men working with mortar and bricks. He went to the first man and said, "What are you doing?" The man replied, "I am laying bricks." He went to the second man and asked him the same question and the worker said, "I am building a wall." But the final bricklayer had a different answer: "I am building a cathedral."

In the process of raising kids, it is very easy to feel like you are just laying bricks. In reality you are building a cathedral, a child whom God has given you to train up to carry on in the next generation. There is no greater privilege in life.

Prayer:

That you would develop a vision for what God wants to accomplish through you as you build into your children.

Discuss: Why is it easy to forget that, as we raise children, we are "building cathedrals" and not just "laying bricks?"

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