Children of God

Simply Beautiful

This spring, I had the pleasure of taking my grandson to his first movie. He’s four years old, and he was very excited to go to the movie theater. When the ad came on TV, he would tell me, “I want to see that in the movie theater.” He was staying with my husband and I for a few days, so I decided to take him to the matinee show.

It rained all that morning but stopped just in time for us to go to the movie. When we came out of the theater, it began raining again. As we drove out of the parking lot, he wasn’t particularly happy about the rain and said, “It’s raining again.” I agreed with him and said, “Anytime you feel upset about it raining, just remember that it takes the rain to make the flowers grow.” He readily agreed and asked who makes the rain. So, I told him the truth…”God makes the rain”.

A few days later, we walked outside in our pajamas early one morning to admire the plants growing in the garden. It was quite chilly so I told him we should go sit on the driveway where the sun is shining. From our places in the warm morning sun, we discussed bugs, trees, birds and all kinds of stuff. He asked lots of questions about who made all kinds of things and learned the difference between things man has made and things God has made. Then he asked me why God made the sun. I told him because He wanted to give us light, warmth, and help things grow. He said, “Yeah, like the rain to help the flowers grow.” I acknowledged in agreement and was happy to find he remembered our conversation from a few days before. Finally, he asked, “Why did God make all this?” I told him, “He made all this for us because He loves us.” He sat there silently for a minute and said, “God is awesome!”

Now, this wasn’t the first conversation my grandson and I have had about God, but it brought my heart such joy when he said, “God is awesome!” I thought of the beauty of seeing things through the eyes of a child. The love they so easily give. The eagerness they have to learn and their insatiable curiosity. The pure joy my grandson gets from playing with a tiny toy truck. What a treasure and blessing a child is!

Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: And the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; So are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them, (Psalm 127:3-5).

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Each of you remembers fondly things of your childhood – long before the cares of the world weighed you down – long before you forgot the unending potential of the pebbles in your pocket or the majesty of the bugs and frogs under the summer light pole in your backyard – long before you became aware of your sin.

The love, purity, and joy that a child embodies is what believers long for and what our future with Christ holds.

Believers can learn many things from the innocent faith of a child. The total dependence they have on their parents, the natural love they feel towards them, this is how we should all be to our Father in Heaven.

When the disciples asked Jesus who would be the greatest in Heaven, he replied:

Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea, (Matthew 18:3-6).

Unburdened by negativity, social pressures, and unrealistic expectations, children remind us of the beauty of simplicity in life. The innocence of their hearts proclaims the Truth. After Jesus overthrew the tables of the money lenders at the temple, He healed the blind and the lame, and the children cried out,

Hosanna to the Son of David! (Matthew 21:15).

The chief priests and scribes did not like this (they did not believe Jesus was who the children proclaimed Him to be), and they asked Jesus if He heard what the children were saying. Jesus replied:

Yea; have ye never read, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise”? (Matthew 21:16).

It is not hard to figure out what Jesus thought about children. He loved and cherished them. When the disciples tried to hold the children back from Him, Jesus was very displeased and rebuked them, saying:

Let the little children come to me. Don’t stop them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it, (Mark 10:14).

Then, Jesus took the children in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them.

Now, it should be of special note to you that Jesus said, more than once, that whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. Faith, like that of a child, is what we must have.

To Raise a Child

It is a great and awesome responsibility to raise a child. Limitless joy and unending challenges lie in that bundle of joy you bring home when it’s born.

Unfortunately, many do not take this responsibility seriously. Even worse, some waste this wonderful blessing in many ways, including seeing it as a burden or taking it as an opportunity to create chaos.

God gave us the perfect way to raise a child. Here are a just few verses:

• Train up a child in the way he should go: And when he is old, he will not depart from it, (Proverbs 22:6).
• And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, (Ephesians 6:4).
• Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:  And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up, (Deuteronomy 6:4-7).

• The one who will not use the rod hates his son, but the one who loves him disciplines him diligently (Proverbs 13:24).

  • NOTE: this verse does not support abuse. It tells parents to discipline their children.

Raising a child is hard work.  It’s full of great blessings and unending difficulties.  One of the worst and saddest things I see rampant in the world today is parents who don’t want to be parents.  They want to be friends.  They don’t want to cause any friction or rock the boat in their relationship with their child.  They just want smooth sailing.  I’m not sure why this is.  No doubt, there are a myriad of reasons:

• I don’t have time
• It’s just too hard
• I don’t want them to be mad at me
• They’ll figure it out on their own
• I don’t know how

I’m here to tell you that you are not being a parent if it’s more important to you to be your child’s friend than it is to actually parent them.  Your children are not your friends – now, they might be, but don’t get your role confused.  You are the parent, and they are the child.  Be the parent.  You might just gain a life-long friend.

Those sweet littles babies that you have, they grow.  If you think raising a hormonal teenager comes without challenges, I have to tell you it doesn’t.  Many days, your child may not even like you.  That’s just the way it is.  We all want our children to grow up and be independent, use logical reasoning, and be healthy adults.  However, their brains are not fully developed until they’re in their mid 20s.  They need you to lovingly guide them.

Having raised three kids of my own, the best advice I can give you is to have a strong personal relationship with Jesus and take everything to Him in prayer.  Model this for your children.  Teach them to love God, as scripture tell us.

Final Thoughts

After Jesus answered the disciples’ question about who would be greatest in Heaven, He said of children:

See to it that you don’t despise one of these little ones, because I tell you that in heaven their angels continually view the face of my Father in heaven. What do you think? If someone has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, won’t he leave the ninety-nine on the hillside and go and search for the stray? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over that sheep more than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. In the same way, it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones perish, (Matthew 18:10-14).

Oh believer! What a truly glorious blessing it is that we are called the children of God.

How does your faith in Jesus reflect that of a child’s?

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.

1 John 3:1

• May God bless you on your journey to know Him more.
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