Teach your child to love!

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, EPH 6:4.

I have read the scripture above hundreds of times and heard a variety of explanations on it. The basic idea seems to be that fathers are not to make their children mad on purpose. My mom used to say that she wished it had said, "Big brothers, don't make your younger siblings mad on purpose." No doubt there is some truth in this explanation but I believe it has a deeper meaning. The key words here are "bring up" and "nurture".

This verse is centered on bringing up children. All of us know that at some point a parent is going to make a child mad. Children are inmature and many times will get mad if they don't have their own way. Realizing that we can't always have our own way is part of growing up. The older a child gets, the more he or she should understand this. Any good parent would rather make a three year old mad than let him have a butcher knife to cut the cake. He may be mad at the moment but he will soon forget it when he starts to eat the cake.

I believe the deeper meaning here is that parents should not pass on their anger to their children. It is so easy to harbor anger. it is then a given that the anger will be passed on. Anger is like a boiling kettle; The pressure has to come out somewhere. Unfortunately, many times the anger is misdirected at the people we love the most.

Are you hurt over a divorce? Please don't let your children hear you talk about their other parent. It will cause them to harbor anger at both parents down the road. Were you treated wrong by an older brother? Don't tell your son, "you remind me of my brother, Sam. Why can't you stay out of trouble?" Many times children grow up with negative feelings towards people they will never meet because of words spoken in a time of frustration.

Instead of passing on the anger, let's fill our children's minds with positive things. When conversations about the offending party come, try something like "I know that person has made some mistakes but let's pray for them." When temptation to share some bitter experience arises think about the influence it may have on your child. Will my child have to deal with the anger I am feeling later on. If so I will choose not to share.

The best gift we can give our children is to teach them about Jesus and his love for humanity. We can not teach them about love and fill their spirits with malice at the same time. God help us to pass on good memories instead of anger and resentment. Make the world a better place, teach your child to love!

The Center of God's Will

Yesterday a thought came to me as I was sitting in a Head Start classroom observing the layout of the room. In a Head Start classroom everything is about centers. If there is two much open space the children will want to run and play. It is hard to get them to concentrate on any one thing. The answer is to divide the room into learning centers. There is, for instance, a block center, an art center, a science center, etc. Each center has dividers on both sides to help the children concentrate on the task they are involved in at the moment. Even the tables  in the classroom are arranged in a way that minimizes open space to discourage running. You see, children are distracted so easily that the teacher must help them to concentrate only on the task at hand. When it is time for them to change centers they will told to switch up.

In a way, our lives are a reflection of the classroom. There are so many choices in life. It is easy to spend a lot of valuable time worrying about what we should be doing next or what the will of God is for our lives. The truth of the matter is that God wants us to be happy and content with what we are doing at the present. We should consider that the place we are in now is God's will. If our own bad choices have put us where we are, then we simply do the best we can and trust God to move us into a better place when it is time. If we will do our best in that center then he will tell us when it is time to move on.

Jesus said. "except you become as little children you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." This goes against our desire for independence. But the truth is that we were not meant to control our own destiny. Yes, we have choices to make, but in the end His knowledge and understanding is so much better than our own. Sometimes children will not want to quit playing in a certain area but the teacher knows it is time to do something different. It would not be good for the child to play with the blocks all day. The teacher must be gentle yet firm about insisting that the child move on to a new activity.

Not only do we humans not like to wait, we don't like change either. If something seems uncomfortable or unfamiliar, we try to avoid it. Yet just like the child who must try something new for the first time, sometimes God must force us into incomfortable situations for us to learn and grow. Instead of fighting this, why not ask God to help us see each new phase of our lives as a learning situation? It would make the time spent in that center so much easier. You see, we can learn a lot from a Head Start classroom. When we think about it, we big children are no so much different from the small children after all.

Thoughtfully,

Rev. Sullivan Jones


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The shield of faith

As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him. Psalms 18:30

All of us have had those times of great faith in our lives. You know the ones I mean. The times when you just know that God is on your side. It seems like everything is going your way and God is blessing right and left. We call these the mountaintops.

But then there are the valleys. These are the places where our faith doesn't seem to be as strong as it once was. Maybe the pressures of life have left us wondering if God is still around. Oh we know he still exists, but we wonder if he is hearing our prayers or not. I have known people who thought that God was mad at them when they were having a bad day. I don't believe God is that fickle.

God loves us with an everlasting love and he demonstrated it on the cross of Calvary. He watches over his children and protects them. He doesn't always keep us from going through trials but he does watch over us in the trials that we go through.

Psalm 18:30 tells us that God is a buckler to those who trust him. A buckler is a shield. Even when life seems to be throwing us curve balls, we need not fear. God is a shield to us. Corrie ten Boom, a holocaust survivor and famous Christian author, quoted her sister Betsie as saying, "There is no place safer than the center of God's will. Let us pray that we may always know it." If we obey God's word and try our best to live a life that glorifies him, He will be a shield to us. If you are facing a trial today, stand strong. Your God fights for you!