June 21 I Monday

Esther 3-5

Acts 5:22-42

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”   —Proverbs 22:6 NKJV

What is the best thing that a parent can leave for their child? When we study Scripture, we find that God’s goal, as our Father, is not to teach His children self-confidence; rather, He is teaching something much bigger—confidence in Him. In fact, God sometimes strips us of our self-confidence until there is nowhere else to go, but back to Him.

      Paul tells us, “We do not want you to be uninformed... about the troubles we experienced...We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God…” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9). God brings us to the point of undermining our self-confidence, not because He wants to leave us weak, floppy and useless, but to replace that self-confidence with a confidence in God. In all, we rely on God.

      Before our children leave our homes, the best thing we can do for our children, as they grow, is leave them with a trust and confidence in God. We are not responsible for the choices our children make, but we are to provide an environment that makes it easy for them to make the right choices, though they may not.

      Life is not about money, career or education, but what matters is answering these questions: What is the will of God? What are the purposes of God? How do we live by the values that are aligned with what is important to God? How do we adopt purposes that are consistent with His will and His Word? 

      A saying goes, “The best things are caught, not taught.” If we say the right things, but do not live in the same way, what will our children believe? If we are watching a film and the soundtrack is not synchronized with the visuals, we would make a comment on how the soundtrack is either too fast or too slow compared to the visual, and not the other way around. This is because we measure what we see against what we hear, since what we see is what we know as real. Hence, it is simply not enough to teach our children to rely on God, but we must demonstrate that with our priorities and objectives. As parents, we have a responsibility to live before our children with the idea of what really matters in life. 

      Although some of us may not have children, we still have the opportunity to live as godly models, as we trust in, rely on and have confidence in God.

Prayer: Lord God, help me role model what it means to live with total trust, reliance and confidence upon You to the next generation. Thank You, Lord.