The growth of his adult teeth propels me to take more seriously the growth of his mind and heart and spirit into adulthood. What am I doing to cultivate his physical, mental and spiritual well being? What am I doing to instill virtues such as patience, self-control, love and honesty? Virtues that are needed to live a life of godliness for the purpose of pointing others to God and for the purpose of a life of peace and good choices.
If you have children, what are you doing to instill these things? If you are in the empty nest stage of life, what have you done or are still doing? As believers - we must live out our lives in the world, but not of the world. This faith practice plays out in the way we our parent our children and will leave a legacy for generations to come. It is such a burden, but one that can be light through the empowering presence of the Spirit and our daily surrender to that presence.
In Genesis 18:19 we read, "for I [God] have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him."
In a similar way, God has chosen us to "direct" our children and our household to do what is "right" and "just" - not in our own eyes, but in the eyes of the Lord - the way of the Lord.
Let us all hold fast to the role of directing in our homes - directing that is displayed through the example of righteousness and justice, having an aim only for being Christlike - for Christ embodies righteousness and justice.
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