DO YOU HAVE YOUR CHILDRENS' HEARTS? AND DOES GOD HAVE YOURS?

My wife and I have raised eight children. (Whew!) There were the normal bumps and bruises along the way, mistakes made, lots of forgiveness sought for and given. And we had our share of really hard moments. Teenage rebellions, Satan’s intrusions in the lives of our kids, etc.

By the great grace of God, all of them are now grown, married, and walking with Christ. (With 27 of their own kids in tow!)

KEEPING THEIR HEART

We are often asked how we did it. There is much to say and we’re certainly not the perfect examples. For me, I would say FIRST—marry a great, godly, pioneering, faith believing wife who is tenacious for her children. No substitute for that.

But one bit of counsel we often give is this: Keep their hearts. In other words, whatever you do, make sure that they know you love them and that you make every sacrifice in time and attention and affection to make sure that they love you also at the end of the day … even when their struggling.

A sign of this would be that the child always knows they can walk through the door, right into your heart, and regardless of the moment, they will always be loved and accepted, even if discipline is needed (and we did a lot of disciplining).

Pray for this. Evaluate your parenting with this question: “Do we still have their heart?” Adjust your parenting as needed. And, without question, the greatest question is this, “Does GOD have their hearts? Are they loving Him and following Him well?”

JESUS SAID IT

When confronted by some hypocritical Pharisees, Jesus quoted Isaiah in this regard.

‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. (Mk. 7:6)

The hypocrites’ hearts were distant from the One who made them. This was not because of a lack of God’s love, but their choices to go their own way.

A good question to ask daily in your relationship with Him is this, “Do you have my heart, Lord? Are you pleased and blessed by where my heart is with You?”

Remember the greatest command? We are to love the Lord our God, with all our hearts. One of the things my parents often said was that they wanted their children to know that they loved the Lord above everything else. Focus on this—in your life and your children’s—and you’ll do well.