GOD will NEVER judge you for how your children TURN OUT, but ONLY for HOW you RAISED them. There are 1189 chapters in the Bible. As we open to Psalm 127-128, we open to two of the most beautiful pictures of marriage and family life in all of God's Word, captured on paper for us to read. God allows us to see marriage and family life from His perspective, with children described as growing like these healthy green, fruitful trees, entwined lovingly into our lives as parents, and growing with us in godliness. The picture seen in this Psalm would be the dream come true for every parent who knows and loves God today. But we must balance this picture with the reality taught by the other 1187 chapters of God's Word:
• God will never make believers answer for how their children turned out—only for how they raised them.
• God wants us prayerfully living out our marriages and families based on prayer and His Word. That is all He expects from each of us His children.
God’s Amazing Grace
Amazingly the 127th Psalm, breathed out by God’s Spirit through Solomon, came through a man who would be considered:
a disaster in his personal life (lost pagans deeply influenced him),
a disaster in his married life (he couldn’t stop chasing after and acquiring more women), and
a disaster in his family life (his son Rehoboam wreaked havoc on the nation he inherited from his dad, by his proud, arrogant dismissal of any wise advice).
Yet, God in His grace used Solomon greatly for His Glory and does so even to this day by the Scriptures Solomon wrote. Listen to what God describes about the delights of a Word-filled marriage in this wonderful chapter. Listen to God’s voice.
There are no Perfect Families
What do David the “Man after God’s own heart” and Abraham the “Friend of God” both have in common with Solomon?
It is the same reality that Adam and Eve faced after the Garden of Eden, and Noah found after the global flood, and the Patriarchs Isaac and Jacob discovered at the end of their lives. Each of these Biblical giants, along with almost every other family that is chronicled to any length in God's Word—all had what we would describe as “wayward” or spiritually struggling children.
One of the greatest challenges in life is raising children.
After years of combing through every verse of the Bible dozens of times, I still haven’t found the perfect family—a family with a godly dad, a godly mom, with all their children who are submissive their entire time at home, and all of whom grow up to move on into godly marriages and homes. This type of “perfect family” just isn’t recorded in the Bible.
NO METHOD FOR PERFECT CHILDREN: What we do find in God’s Word are some godly parents who have both godly and ungodly children (most of the recorded families); we also find some ungodly parents who have all ungodly children (like most of the kings of Israel), while other ungodly parents end up with some godly children (like a few rare kings of Israel’s sons). There just doesn’t seem to be a parenting pattern that always works to produce a “perfect” family.
One ‘parenting-challenged’ father said it best. His name was Samuel, his sons did not follow the Lord as he had, and in public, at the end of his ministry he said these words:
1 Samuel 12:23 "Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you; but teach you the good and the right way. (NKJV)
So what is the answer for us as we parent? The delightful reality that God only asks us to pray and follow His Word, not produce a “perfect” family. There are three steps we need to follow as godly parents today.
(BC&D-33) Follow Discover the Book Ministries to stay up to date:
Facebook:
Instagram:
Twitter:
Purchase resources:
E-Books:
Traditional Books:
Audio CDs:
For more of Dr. John Barnett's Bible teaching messages go to:
0 Comments