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A sense of abundance and fullness

True and living God,

  • Your works go before you and proclaim your glory. In Christ we see your love and goodness, the justice brought to man. You are worthy of praise.
  • We love you, and desire that you dwell in our hearts. Come to us, for we have come to the Rock that shelters us above all tempests.
  • Forgive us of the sin of anxiousness, O Lord, that inner turmoil over our many responsibilities or dread concerning current events.
  • Give us, Father, a sense of abundance and fullness, that come from the bounty of your goodness.
  • We are thankful for technology that permits us to do more, be more efficient in our work, have greater contact with loved ones and friends, share the gospel with the lost.
  • Father, bless the work of the Good News in Argentina. May the brethren there be strong in faith. Send more workers into that field.
  • Uphold the work of Colin and Lisa Graham in Bangor, North Ireland, and give them fruit from their labors.
  • Bless parents as they rear their children in the fear of your Name, transmit to them the joy of serving Christ, and instill in them love in its purest form.
  • Thank you, Lord, for reconciliation, to give us peace with you and in ourselves, for peacemaking as our objective.
  • Thank you for the recorded history, in Scripture, of your work to save mankind, for your patience with the stubbornness of Israel and with the recalcitrance of the church.

What a wonderful God you are to love and save us!

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In the Way He Should Go

My grandfather used to say, “You don’t wait until a tree is full grown until you prune it.”  When kids are bad, we blame the world, coaches, teachers, “failing schools” … or even the kids themselves.  But, rarely do we blame bad parenting.  Far too often parenting is negligent, permissive, or authoritarian, but biblical parenting is the way that our heavenly Father parents us–authoritatively, a process that, out of love, outlines the consequences for our choices but allows us to make our own choices.

I. Genesis 2:20-24.  God created parenting.  In the verses, we often use to show how marriage is between a man and a woman, the concepts of “father” and “mother” are mentioned.  How strange they must have sounded to Adam and Eve who had neither!  But, here God institutes not only marriage but the concept of family and parental roles.

II. Ephesians 6:1-4.  Children are to obey their parents in the Lord, but fathers are to instruct their children in the Lord.  Parents must actively train their children in the way they should go (Proverbs 22:6).  The Israelites were told to do this (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) but forgot while they conquered the Promised Land with disasterous consequences (Judges 2:10-13).

III. 1 Timothy 3:4-5.  Even an elder must have parented in the style of our heavenly Father over us, so that he can shepherd Christ’s church in that same parenting style.  A kid that doesn’t accept correction brings grief to his mother (Proverbs 29:15) and breaks his mother’s heart (Proverbs 15:20).  Rather, when a child does not turn from the way he was trained (Proverbs 23:25), he brings joy!

This is a difficult topic as no matter our kids’ ages, we realize we all have made mistakes in parenting that we regret.  Where it is not too late, we can change.  Where it is, we can apologize.  But, there are still kids in our lives (in the church especially) over which God has given us influence.  How’s your example?  How are you training the children in your life?