Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “The Family”… referring to the education we receive in “The Family”. This institution (the family) is the fundamental building-block of society. The fundamental “school” of God for the eternal lessons we all need to learn. Alas, our society has largely thrown-off the mooring lines that God has established (the family) and our society is adrift on the treacherous sea of self-fulfillment and self-pursuit. The family education that has been abandoned is not so much about information or about “pour(ing) the truth of God into our children” (Quarterly for Tuesday 10/7/20). The education that is missed is the practical lives of God-filled parents (mother and father). In the lives of our parents we were to witness the truths of God lived-out. The truths in His Word, lived-out in flesh and blood. As it has been stated, the lessons from parents are largely “caught”, not “taught”.
Our families are the places where each of us learn how to live. How to grow up. How to be mature, healthy adults. At least, that’s how it was designed to be. God, in His infinite wisdom, made man and woman. The “two” to be “one”. And from this union, children are born. Little, innocent babies with nothing impressed upon their virgin minds. Immediately upon birth, into the life of each little babe, life is impressed through the five senses. Everything in our brains is there through those five senses. Parents decide what will thus be impressed. The life of the parent is the impression thus received by the babe. Not so much the lessons spoken. But the actual life of the parent as they live day-by-day is the impression received.
Are the parents loving, kind, supportive, and courageous? Do they acknowledge a “higher power”… honor and worship God? This “lesson” is caught. Are the parents self-seeking, partying, hedonistic and materialistic? Do they live unto themselves… disparage any faith in any god? This lesson, too, is caught. And the impressions thus made can determine so much of a child’s life. Not “THE” determiner, for sure. Because “in the end, though, we all have been given the sacred gift of free will. Ultimately, when they are adults, our children will have to answer for themselves before God” (Quarterly for Wednesday, October 7).
The greatest lesson a parent can impart to their child, is the lesson that the parent cannot successfully navigate this sinful life without a sure and abiding relationship with God. That the parent needs God, just as the child needs God, too. A parent, humble and submissive to God; not intent on their own way but yielding to God’s way; is the one lesson that is needful. If a child witnesses this, and the resulting “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22), then the child will witness the outworking of that submission and faithfulness to God. A lesson that is powerful. A lesson of demonstration. A lesson that needs few words. The lesson of a changed life.
This is what the family can teach. Mutual respect, mutual responsibility, mutual kindness, mutual love. If the Holy Spirit reigns in the heart of the parent, then the child has the best chance to decide for themselves for the “right” when they are old enough. No guarantees here, though. Even God, as a perfect Father, lost 1/3 of His angelic children. Not because He was a bad Father. Not because of any imperfect “parenting”. But because they could and did choose not to regard Him and chose to go another way. They decided for themselves… despite the most perfect parenting in the universe.
So let us strive for the “right” ourselves. Realizing that there are no guarantees. But to abandon our children and youth to their own undeveloped thinking is practically criminal. May we “be” the truth we hold dear, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is my prayer for us all.
With brotherly love,
Jim