Counterfeit: Parenting — Monday
Psalm 127:1
Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. (NIV)
Like most households with children, we had our share of Legos. I have no idea how we ended up with as many as we did - they seemed to multiply when we weren’t looking! Legos can be put into two categories: the random ones to be creative with and the ones that come in a set with specific directions.
When our kids followed directions with a set the result was a beautiful finished product that usually stayed on display.. But when someone played with the loose Legos, you never knew what the creation was going to look like, and very rarely was it going to stay together past that day.
God has given us directions for our families - for how we are to build our houses. All the parenting books and podcasts in the world will be in vain unless you are building your family on the foundation of Jesus. The goal of having children isn’t to fulfill us as parents, it is to glorify God and point our children to the Lord. Success isn’t a child with straight A’s or an athletic college scholarship (although there is nothing inherently wrong with those things). Success as a parent looks like discipling your children and teaching them to follow Jesus and to love others.
Now any of you who have been around children know that somewhere in their first couple years of life, they begin to realize they have a choice when you ask them to do something, and “NO!” becomes a favorite word quickly. As children grow up they will have to choose for themselves whether or not they will follow the Lord, but parents, you are responsible for giving them that foundation and for discipling them, because anything else is pointless in the end.
As you may have heard on Southland’s Parenting Podcast, “You can’t give what you don’t have.” So before you can teach your children about what a relationship with Jesus looks like it may be time to evaluate what your relationship with Jesus looks like.
Monday’s Reflection
If you would like to talk to someone about following Jesus today, you can reach out to one of our staff - we would love to help you.