Text: Psalm 127
The greatest challenge that God has given each parent is that of raising his/her children.
Jacquelyn Kennedy once said, “If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do really matters.” (Roy B. Zuck, The Speaker’s Quote Book, p. 50)
As I look over the 30 plus years of my ministry, I have many things for which I am thankful. I have weathered some difficult storms and leaned into the winds of adversity on more than one occasion. During that time there have been many that have come to faith in Christ and lives renewed in their walk with God. But, I could not feel that I have experienced even a measure of success if in the process I had lost my children to the world, the flesh and/or the Devil.
David McKay writes, “No success can compensate for failure in the home.” (Roy B. Zuck, The Speaker’s Quote Book, p. 50)
Sadly, it is at the level of the home that we are placing too little emphasis.
Do we really know the impact our homes have on the lives of our children?
Studies have shown that 1% of influence in a child’s life comes from the church and Sunday school. The percentage of influence increases to 7% from their classroom experiences at school. The greatest influence in a child’s life (92%) is from the home. (H. Wayne House & Kenneth M. Durham, Living Wisely in a Foolish World, p. 50)
If we as parents have such a powerful impact on our children’s lives then it is important that we see our children as God sees them.
Consider…
1. The Right Perspective on Our Children (127:3)
Children are called here “an heritage,” and “His reward.” It is implied in these terms that children are a blessing, not a burden. An inheritance is something of great value that is passed down to you by another. Our children are of great value given to us by God.
When a society degenerates, one of the evidences of this decline is a loss of family love.
“Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” (Romans 1:29-32)
Charles Spurgeon once wrote, “When society is rightly ordered children are regarded, not as encumbrances, but as an inheritance; and they are received, not with regret, but as a reward.” (Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Volume 3, Psalms 120-150, p. 85)
a. Each Child is a precious gift
Implied in this phrase “an heritage of the Lord” is not only the thought that our children are from the Lord, but also that they “belong to the Lord.”
H.T. Armfield writes, “The Hebrew seems to imply that children are an heritage belonging to the Lord…” (Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Volume 3, Psalms 120-150, p. 85)
Our children are on loan to us from God! We are to be good stewards of the gifts that He has given us, knowing that we will give an account for our stewardship.
b. Each Child is a perpetual joy
The text says that the man who has children is a “HAPPY” man (Psalm 127:5).
It doesn’t always feel this way when you are in the throes of childrearing, though.
I am reminded of a bedraggled-looking mother of three unruly preschoolers who was asked whether she would have children if she had it to do all over again. The mother responded, “Sure, just not the same three.”
All parents feel like that mother at times, but the Scripture is clear that children are a blessing from God and can bring joy to the hearts of their parents.
Listen to these Scriptures:
“The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father…” (Proverbs 10:1)
“My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.” (Proverbs 23:15-16)
“The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him. Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.” (Proverbs 23:24)
Consider…
2. The Rich Potential of Our Children
The analogy that is used here of an arrow and a mighty man reminds us of the tremendous potential our children possess.
A teacher of ten-and eleven-year old boys in Germany would take off his top hat and bow before the boys in deference to them. “Why do you do that?” someone asked him one day. He answered, “Who knows what one of these boys may become?” Little did he know what one of the boys would accomplish in his life and his name was Martin Luther.
It is not that every child will have a renowned impact on the world, but it is that every child will have some impact on the world around him.
What does it take for your children to realize the full potential of their lives?
a. They must be fashioned
Before an arrow can fly through the air to hit the target, it must be first fashioned by the archer. Children come to us raw and unformed.
A woman once said to me that when she had her first child she suddenly realized that he hadn’t come with an instruction manual.
While I understand her comment was in relation to how you care for her new child, we do have a manual instructing us about the important things that need to be developed in our children’s lives.
This Book is none other than the Bible and it is our instruction manual guiding us in the process of fashioning our children.
This process of fashioning our children involves cutting away things that would hinder our children and instilling things that will give their lives that polished finish.
b. They must be focused
As “a mighty man” must aim the arrow at his target so our children must be aimed at the glory of God.
Too many parents take the attitude that they will leave spiritual matters up to their children when they reach the age of maturity. That is a fatal mistake and a dereliction of our stewardship. (Roy B. Zuck, The Speaker’s Quote Book, p. 53)
Someone has said, “If you do not teach your child the ways of the Lord, the Devil will teach them the ways of sin.” (Roy B. Zuck, The Speaker’s Quote Book, p. 49)
“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. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9)
c. They must be freed
Probably the hardest thing a parent has to do after all the investment of their lives in their children is to let them go toward God’s will for their futures.
As the “mighty man” must release the arrow for it to strike its mark, so we must release our children to accomplish His will for them.
A pastor was preaching in his small country church about the importance of missions and he was imploring someone from his congregation to go to a place on the other side of the world where the Gospel needed to be preached. During the invitation he prayed that someone would respond to the message but after several verses of the invitation song no one had come. The pastor began to cry and plead with the people for someone to surrender to this far away land. As tears were running down his cheeks and dropping to the floor someone moved from the back of the church. As the music continued playing a young girl stepped out into the aisle and walked down to the front. When she reached the preacher she whispered in his ear, “I’ll go, daddy. God wants me to go.” The preacher became more emotional and said to her, “Not you honey! Let someone else go, I wasn’t talking about you! Oh please, God, not my baby girl.”
It’s hard to let your children go, but it is always God’s will that we free them to follow the Lord!
