Written by: John Sernaque
Dear Readers,
I look back to when I was a young boy and recall a time when my father and I were at the hardware store looking for nuts and bolts. Back then they were called hardware stores and were not the big “Home Centers” of today. After having been through a couple of aisles in the store, a sales clerk came up to my father and said that he had been watching us. My father looked at him inquisitively, so the clerk stated that he noticed how I mimicked my father’s mannerisms i.e. when my father put his hands on his hips, I would put my hands on my hips. When my father leaned in to get a closer look and put his hands on his knees as he bended his body forward, I would do the same, and so on etc. These are precious moments that sometimes get taken for granted.
While completing a chore, a parent has the opportunity to get closer to their son, or daughter, and get to develop and nurture a lasting relationship. Being involved in your child’s life, and they being involved in your life. Take advantage of every opportunity you get. Because positive influences work both ways. I was very blessed to be able to put my children on the school bus at the end of our driveway just about every day and get to waive to them and they to me as the bus pulled away to take them off to school. What a great way to start off the day. Now, years later, as I get in my car and drive off to work, it is they that stand at the end of the driveway waiving to me. It was in those earlier years that this habit was instilled in them and I, as a parent, reap the reward of showing my children how much I love them. They reciprocate their actions and their love back to me. No one told them to do this. They do this from their own volition, from their heart, out of love. So every day is a great day. But every day does not start without God. He gives us the breath of life. And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7.
In our family, we each spend time with God before all else. This is the habit above all else that we need to instill in ourselves and our children. To be able to develop a relationship with God and being able to speak freely with Him as a friend. To listen to His voice. To receive His peace that He longs for us to have. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Jeremiah 29:11. To picture God as He watches over all of us, with nothing but love in His eyes. To see His example, so we may mimic and receive His character through the Word of Life. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6. Keeping our eyes on Jesus. All the while we must tend to His sheep. Our children are not ours, we are only stewards of God’s children. We ourselves are God’s children and collectively make up God’s Royal Family. What an honor it is to serve God. To do and to will of His Good pleasure. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure. Philippians 2:13. We are very privileged to have been blessed with children to take care of. If for God’s reason one does not have any children, remember that there are children everywhere in this world, right in your own neighborhood, who need a friend that will lead them to Christ Jesus.
Like their Master, the followers of Christ in every age were to be the light of the world. The Saviour said, “A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house”—that is, in the world. And He adds, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16. This is just what Enoch, and Noah, Abraham, Joseph, and Moses did. It is just what God designed that His people Israel should do. {PP 369.4}
There are few who realize how far-reaching is the influence of their words and acts. How often the errors of parents produce the most disastrous effects upon their children and children’s children, long after the actors themselves have been laid in the grave. Everyone is exerting an influence upon others, and will be held accountable for the result of that influence. Words and actions have a telling power, and the long hereafter will show the effect of our life here. The impression made by our words and deeds will surely react upon ourselves in blessing or in cursing. This thought gives an awful solemnity to life, and should draw us to God in humble prayer that He will guide us by His wisdom. {PP 556.1}
So, do not do anything with a grudging heart and spirit. Let everything you do be for the Glory of God. Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31.
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