In our role as parents, we invest a lot of time, energy, money, etc., in wanting the best opportunities for our children. Our “best” for them is relative to our motives, thoughts and ambitions as to why we do what we do or desire what we want for them. We sometimes focus too much on the childhood versus the adult that is in the making. We look to education, sports, and materialism to fulfill them and to set them apart. We have a tendency to put too much emphasis on popularity among their peers. Are we striving for that which is “truly best” for them?
Life’s “best” comes by way of God’s way and wisdom. What am I investing in with my child that will last? What is being produced in their character and integrity? Boiling all this down, it becomes a search for their significance, or “our” significance through their lives. Significance is “the quality of being worthy of attention; importance”. Life teaches us that true significance is the value placed on each of us through the eyes of God. It is often said that parents are living vicariously through the lives of their children searching for their own significance. We strive that they may “stand out” in their respective places. “#Stand out for good” is a slogan for a Christian clothing store for girls. That is certainly an excellent slogan for our children; to stand out for good. I want to make a slight change to #Stand out for God.
What if this is a goal every parent has for their children. “Good” is what we are in the eyes of God; what He knows about each of us. Psalm 4:3 (NLT): “You can be sure of this: The LORD set apart the godly for himself. The LORD will answer when I call to him.” What if our motives are transformed into wanting our children to be significant in the eyes of God? It is God who gives them their value. He made them and gave them to us.
“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Psalm 139:13-16 (NLT)
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”
It is godly wisdom that empowers a parent to “raise a child in the way they should go”. God’s ways “will” make a difference in five and ten years. Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT): “‘For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’” God’s way for our children includes purity and godliness; both of which will last. Second Timothy 2:21 (NLT): “If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work.”
Significance for our children would come in their being a special utensil for God’s use; #Stand out for God.
“In the same way, encourage the young men to live wisely.”
Titus 2:6 (NLT)
