I have at times grown quiet in a group feeling like I do not have much to contribute to the conversation and I chose to keep silent, but I am realizing that is not what God intended. I look back in my life to my early walk with the Lord and how I was so hungry to learn what was right and what was wrong and I had such a desire to raise a Godly seed. I used to glean from older women every chance I had, I used to read books on raising children, I would say I tackled raising my children for the Lord with a vengeance!
I remember my Pastor's wife approaching me, while I was reading a book on raising children and she asked me what I was reading, I told her the title of the book and she was very familiar with it. She asked me if I knew how his children turned out? I had to say "No". It was left at that but you can be sure that I later did my research and found that this gentlemen lost his children to the world and never regained them. Needless to say I did not complete the book.
Do our mentors need to be perfect, absolutely not! If you wait on perfection, you will be waiting a long time, but one thing we do need to tap into is people that have raised children that have turned out serving the Lord.
I will share one lesson that I learned early in my life that I will give all Glory and Honor to the Lord for teaching me this lesson. As a young mother I used to fret about the mistakes I made in the past, (Will those mistakes effect my children?) The mistakes I will make in the future, (Will my children serve the Lord when they are older?) I would spend so much time focusing on the past and the future that I was forgetting about the here and now. My heart would be so burdened for my children, I would weep and pray and fret! I wanted them to serve the Lord and not have the scars I have as an adult.
One day it dawned on me that I was trying to achieve something in my own power that only God could achieve in the heart of my children, my focus was so much on my abilities to do everything right that I was forgetting about who really builds the house. What a huge burden that was lifted when I came across Psalms 127:1 Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. I realized that except the Lord put it within the heart of my children, my labour was in vain, I realized that I needed the Lord to deal with the heart (inside out) instead of me trying to push from the outside in. I began to pray different, I began to deal with issues of the heart (stubborness, selfishness, rebellion) rather than just how they should behave (the outward man, or the surface issues.) I began to confess my inability to raise a Godly seed and began to ask the Lord to put it within their heart to serve him and that is when I began to see a real desire cultivated in the lives of my children. (To GOD be the GLORY!)
We as parents teach our children from infancy how to be good, so when they are presented salvation they really do not quit understand their need for salvation and may go through the motions because they are a good little boy or a good little girl. I have watched each of my children travail about their salvation because of professions they made when they were young but later realized that they truly had not repented of their sin. I love my children and I did my best to show them that I loved them but I also was quick to point out their wicked nature.
As young parents raising a Godly seed, learn early to pray and ask the Lord to go where no man can go and that is straight to the heart and rest in the Lord because he doeth all things well.
Praise HIS Holy name!
