CHILDREN’S DAY MESSAGE
~ Pastor G Khankham
We are thankful to God for giving us this wonderful Children’s day amidst the pandemic in our country. Our theme for this year June is FAITHFUL STEWARDS TO CHILDREN. We thanked God for giving us children to be raised and nurtured. First we would look at where our children come from and their status. Secondly, what is God’s commandment towards relationship between parents and children? And thirdly we look at commandments given to parents.
Our overarching theme would be how we incorporate children in praise and worship. Like should we leave our children to attend worship service? How do we guide them according to the Bible? And how we tend to overlook the misdoings of our children and how dangerous it is.
1. CHILDREN: ORIGIN AND STATUS
As children, what we should know is where we come from and where we belong. Genesis 33:5 talks about the story of Jacob and Esau. The meeting of Esau and Jacob holds centre stage in this where Jacob was fearful of meeting his brother Esau, he send his servants and gifts ahead of him and finally he met with his wives, sons and daughters. When Esau asked them whose children they were, Jacob said these were blessings from God. So, as children we are blessings given to our parents by the Grace of God.
Even Joseph in Genesis 18:9 talked about his children as blessings from God to his Father Jacob. Therefore it is not on our own will and wish that children are born into this world. Sam 127:3 clearly indicates children as treasures from God. No matter how much money and wealth we have, we can never buy our own children. But we children are given as Treasure by God so we must realise our value and worth. Deuteronomy 7:13; 28:4 and Sam 127:3 vividly mentions child as treasure from Mother’s womb. We are nor born out of caves or wood. We are a reward given to our parents by God. Our mothers forget all the pain of labour once a child is born to her.
Those who have lots of children are also compared to a warrior with arrows in his hand. The arrows do not lie idle, they have a purpose. So we are created for a purpose by God. And parents are crowns with generations across time. Jesus himself said, “Let children come to me and do not stop them.” Children are Jesus’ delight and companion.
God has given us few commandment to us children which is to Respect our parents (Exodus 20:12, Deuteronomy 5:12, Ephesians 6:2). This is a simple one which does not require beauty, maturity or wisdom. Not any parents but your own parents should be respected.
Second is to Obey our parents in everything (Ephesians 6:1, Colossians 3:20). By everything, it means the food and drinks we consume, the places we visit, the work we do must satisfy our parents. And if we do so, it will be a delight to the Lord. Praise the Lord! To be appreciated by God and satisfy Him, the Bible doesn’t say pray continuously, recite verses repeatedly, but it says Obey your parents. When you obey your parents in everything that you do, the Lord appreciates you. Let’s ask our parents in whatever we do so that it will be the best for us.
The third one is, we should not despise our parents. Our parents may not be as strong or beautiful or as tech-savvy as we are, but we should not look them down as we are born to them.
Proverbs 23:12 Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.
So we must not despise our parents especially our mother when she is old. Obeying parents can give us long life and satisfaction to God. When God is satisfied we will be blessed with knowledge, beauty and health etc.
2. COMMANDMENTS TO PARENTS
As parents, God has commanded us to teach and guide our children. Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. There are many false teachings saying that all religion leads to the same God. Satan may tempt with these kinds of teachings but it is very clear in the Bible verse that there is only one God, and we should obey Him. It is also mentioned in Exodus 20 where God said that you should not have any other gods before me. It proves that there can be other gods. As parents we should teach there is only one God who created heavens and earth. And we should give our heart, our soul and our mind to the God who created the heavens and the earth. These days many scientist claims that there is no God but if there is no God who is giving their knowledge and smartness. We should teach this in a generous way. Whether we are walking/sleeping/sitting/awake, we should sow the seeds of one God in our children.
Second, we should wrap around in our hands the teachings of God. We should be able to let them see God’s word in our faces. We should also put verses in our houses and doors so that children can see it and remember it now and then. This will prevent them straying away from God. It would be desirable to teach and nurture our children this way.
Third, training up a child (Proverbs 22:6) is very important. While we train them to be a footballer, scientist and successful etc. do we also teach them word of God so that they do not stray away later? We should teach them how to be obedient, love siblings, cook, hygienic, well-mannered and polite. How to call our elders and relatives with respect should be teach again and again. Back in the days Grandparents used to teach stories with good morals and children live with those morals they heard from stores. Now we are no longer taught moral stories or word of God. Tinkle magazines, alphabets dominate these spaces. Children are no longer familiar with their kin, confused over how to address their uncles and aunties distancing relationships with lesser communication. All of this is because we parents do not teach them well and enough.
Fourth is Chastisement. This is easier said than done.
Proverbs 22:15 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
We must not shy away from using rod to correct and discipline our children. In proverbs 23 beating child with rod would not kill him, but we should know when and why we beat them. They should realise we do all this in the name of love. It says Punish them with the rod
and save them from death. Praise the Lord. Undisciplined child is not loved and may end up being a drunkard, thief and drugs-abuser.
Proverbs 19:18 Discipline your children while there is hope. Otherwise you will ruin their lives.
Even when they cry do not stop. But this is hard when they cry. Nevertheless we should not stop unless they repent and learn.
How do we handle children in Churches or places of worship? When Moses was about to lead Israelites out of Egypt, Pharaoh asked him to leave behind their children to worship God. But Moses said that we will all go including women and children. We would not leave anything behind.
Joshua 8:35 Every word of every command that Moses had ever given was read to the entire assembly of Israel, including the women and children and the foreigners who lived among them.
Joshua read it to all including children the word of Moses’ Command. So our children should know how to praise and worship God. The Jude’s said that we cover our new born child with our laws. So, in churches or place of worship we should teach children and let them take responsibility in worship of God.
2 Chronicles 20:13 As all the men of Judah stood before the LORD with their little ones, wives, and children.
They all stood before God, we should not give children phones to lure them or leave them behind to attend services or worship. We should do this together with our children. Even when Nehemiah commemorate Jerusalem wall and offer praises to God, children and women were included.
Matthew 21:15 The leading priests and the teachers of religious law saw these wonderful miracles and heard even the children in the Temple shouting, “Praise God for the Son of David.
It was children who shouted praises to God. It shows that children belong to places of worship and they should be encouraged to attend the services.
And, as parents we often teach Ephesians 6:1-3
Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. Honour your father and mother"--which is the first commandment with a promise- "so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth."
But we often leave out the next verse Ephesians 6:4
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.
It’s very easy to provoke our children to anger. As much as we put our hope and faith in our children, they have a lot of hope in us parents. They want to be cared and tendered with kindness. They expect us to give them everything that they want. But we often mistake them and some of them are angry at us while others leave the house. Some no longer want to obey us. In order to avoid this situation, we as fathers should not provoke them with anger.
Colossians 3:20 Fathers, do not aggravate your children, or they will become discouraged. Anger and disappointment distance us and create communication gap. A discouraged child can think he/she is not loved and not cared by parents. What we should do according to the bible is, using God’s word, we should encourage and teach them, God loves you, God has given me You and we both are created by God. This is our responsibility.
3. OVERLOOKING OUR CHILD’s MISTAKES
One joke being told which I believe to be true when l was living in village is, when a women witness his child’s victory among his peers, she is not aware and sensitive to the sufferings of others. But when her child is suffering among his peers, she would be very sensitive and caring to sufferings of her child. This tells us that we as parents can be overly protective when our child is suffering but we would refrain from doing the same to others’ sufferings when our child is victorious.
1 Samuel 3:12-13 I am going to carry out all my threats against Eli and his family, from beginning to end. For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons blasphemed God, and he failed to restrain them.
God has chosen Eli to be a high priest for the Israelites. When people would bring meat and things to be sacrifice for offerings, Priest Eli’s sons would disrespect them by stepping on those offerings. However Eli would not restrain them. God’s wrath is brought onto his family. We must be careful of trouble because of the sins of our children.
Second, God told priest Eli,” You respect your children more than me”. His children would pick pieces of meat for offerings by the people. Their share is given by the people but his children would go the people asking specific pieces of the offerings even before cooking the meat. The lord is angered by their behaviour. God said, “I will respect those who respect me and I will despise those who despised me. There will come a time when I will cut your hands and the hands of your father.” Because of children’s sin the price they have to be paid is horrible and disastrous. God continued saying that his generation even if they were alive would make him depressed and horrible. Let’s not overlook our children mistakes and sin and stop saying that our child would never do such a thing. Let’s stop this over-protectiveness in us. In 1 Samuel 4, sons of Eli died and God’s ark was taken by the Philistines, Phinehas son’s wife died after giving birth. Eli also died after hearing all this news. How shocking and disastrous it was when God pour out his anger on Eli! We should stop overlooking our child’s mistakes.
The Lord has given us good position and status in society, church, offices etc. But we keep on overlooking our child’s mistakes to maintain such positions. Let’s reflect back on the life of Priest Eli. We should be careful how we brought up our children.
WAY FORWARD
On this Children day, 2020, let us as children realise our position, how we are treasures and blessing from God. Respecting and obeying our parents is given to us as commandments by God. We should
As parents, let us be faithful steward to our children. Teaching, guiding and training them should be in line with God’s word not just to protect them from the evil and sufferings of this world but also from the wrath of God.
