God’s Perspective on Children

Psalm 127:3-5  Behold, children are a blessing from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is His reward.

The first note in the workbook for the Basic Seminar by the Institute in Basic Life Principles is the definition of wisdom.

“Wisdom is seeing life from God’s perspective.”

This includes when His perspective is not what you want to hear.  This conflict is particularly evident when it comes to the issue of children.  I actually heard a speaker say from the pulpit, “God, please don’t bless me that way, I’ve already got my three, and they are more than I can handle.”

When it comes to having and caring for children, God’s Perspective is diametrically opposed to man’s perspective.

•  Man’s Perspective:  Try to limit the number of children
• God’s Perspective:  Try to have more children – More blessings
• Man’s Perspective:  Children are a burden.  Get in the way of fun, career, etc.
• God’s Perspective:  Godly offspring is your purpose in life.  They are His reward

Every year I hear jokes about how glad parents are when school starts, because the kids are going to be gone.  How do you think this makes the kids feel?  How would you like someone to say they will be happy when you are gone?  God’s attitude is to enjoy them when they are around, and be sorry when they leave.  Of course, they are more of a joy to have around when you impose God’s perspective of discipline on them.

Nothing worse than a house full of spoiled kids!

3 Temptations of the Devil

Matthew 4:1-10

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. …

Temptation 1:  To rely on earthly Provision and Solutions apart from the

direction of faith.

3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that

these stones become bread.” 4 But He answered and said, “It is

written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”

Temptation 2:  Think you can do anything you want, and God will still protect you.  Twist Scripture to justify your own wants.

5 Then the devil …said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:  ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”
7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not 1 tempt the LORD your God.’ ”

Temptation 3:  Abandon God’s will for your life to pursue the world’s dreams and goals

8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”
10 Then Jesus said to him, 2 “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”

3 Elements of Self Improvement:  Acknowledgement, Analysis, Accountability

An automatic reaction takes place in most people when things go wrong, or when we are corrected for our actions.  The correction can come from a human source such as a boss, but it can also come from a Divine Source in situations that we find ourselves in.  The initial response is usually to make an excuse, or  deflect blame to another source, anything to keep from accepting the responsibility.

Why do we do this?  Because if we are responsible, then we will have to change something.  And if you think everything you do is just fine, then what’s to change?

Dustin Morgan was faced with this reality when he found himself staring at the cold, cinder block walls of a jail cell.  In From Woodstock To Eternity, he is forced to Acknowledge the failure, Analyze what led up to it, and take Accountability for his actions.

Most of the time, when people get caught doing something wrong, they’re not sorry for what they did, but for the fact that they got caught.  They analyze the execution of their plan to see where they messed up, but they never admit that there was anything wrong with the plan in the first place. 

“If I had only done this, or not done that, then it would have worked.”

In this case, it wasn’t the execution – it was the plan!  The vial of coke was there, because that’s how he had planned to live. 

As he stares at the blank, pale yellow walls of his prison cubicle, he knows that as long as he continues living this way, the vulnerability will be there – like stripes on a tiger.  No amount of precautions or self-imposed checks and balances will guarantee it won’t happen again.  There will always be a forgotten roach in the ashtray, an open container in the car, a misplaced film tin in the trunk, an empty vial in the suitcase.  And they will always lead back to this place.  It’s worse than that.  The next time he gets caught, it’ll lead to the state penitentiary.

1.  Acknowledgement – It’s Not Working:  You have to admit something is wrong before

you will ever try to fix it.  This is the hardest part, because if we do admit that something is wrong in our life, then that means we have to fix it.  That means change.

2. Analyze the Root Cause:  Decisions have consequences, but our decisions come out of our lifestyles.  Our lifestyle is where we

have put the treasure of our heart – friends, activities, style, fads, language, etc.  If your lifestyle is undisciplined, your decisions will tend toward avoiding self discipline.  If you are hard working and organized, your decisions will tend toward taking on the task.

3.  Accountability – Accepting the Blame and Creating Solutions:  This is the final key to self improvement.  Take responsibility and come up with a new plan that will avoid the mistakes of the past and pave the way for a better future.  Dustin Morgan vowed to raise his family up in the Lord, and he did.  This one commitment changed his life and that of those around him for the better.

The Blessings of Wise Children

Proverbs 10:1

A wise son makes a glad father,
But a foolish son is the grief of his mother.

There are many passages in Proverbs that start out, “My son,…” do this and that and you

Daily Bible Reading

will be wise.  I used to read these passages to all of my seven children in the morning on the couch for “Bible Time”.

We called them the “My sons” and “My daughters” of Proverbs.  Just as the Bible promises that God’s Word will not return void, and that if you “train up a child in the way he should go, when he grows old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6), my children have grown up to be godly, wise young people.  They are a light in a crooked and perverse generation.

Fathers Day 2015

As they grew up, they would make cards for me on Father’s Day.  The messages of gratitude and thanksgiving from them to me were so encouraging, I taped them to the inside of the door to my locker at work.  On the roughest of days, I could open that door and read those cards, and I knew why I was working so hard – it was for them.

They still make me cards on Father’s Day, and they still bless my heart beyond description.  Thank you Joy, Marshall, Rose, Scott, Jennifer Gloria and Josiah.  And thank you Lisa, my wife, for making it all happen.