Children…
Ephesians 6:1 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.”
It may have been a few years ago, but we have all been children. We began these posts as we looked at honoring fathers and how important it is to honor fathers, and for fathers to be honorable. The last post focused on the necessity of honorable mothers. Good fathers and mothers are the units that build not only good homes but solid families which in turn build a good society. And we are given two reasons why children need to honor their fathers and mothers. Reason number one, it’s the “first commandment with promise” (Ephesians 6:2) And in Ephesians 6:3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
Ephesians 6:4 is a bit of a twist because it ties in with the previous scriptures, but it is speaking to fathers, “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
Because families are the building blocks of character and without a good foundation children will not have good character training. And with these posts I, the author am supposed to introduce readers into my world and help them see what is important to me and what I care about. By beginning with the idea of fathers and mothers and now children I am saying these things are important.
If you look around you people are shouting in our streets about all sorts of things such as black lives matter or defund the police or voter fraud. True these are issues that need some conversation, but we as adults are where we are because of decisions good or bad that we have made. Once we own our life and our culpability in it we can do what we need to do to make it better. That’s on us as adults. I have a real tender spot for the vulnerable amongst us who through no fault of their own don’t have a say in how to make their lives better. And that comes down to children.
I can say many things about my own parenting style, but two things I’ll admit right up front are, I was not a perfect parent but I tried with all of my being to be the best I could be. I used the scriptures, my own upbringing, and maybe a bit of intuition. Would there be things I would do differently? Surely, but life doesn’t usually give us ‘do overs’. What’s done is done. We can make better futures but the past is past.
This is what the summary would be at this point, adults we need to step up and begin today to do the right thing. We need to do the right thing whether or not it is the fun thing or the pleasurable thing. Once you have children honor the commitment to love, cherish, and raise them in the path and love of the Lord.
Ephesians 6:
2) “Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)
3) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
Eph 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
