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What Will They Become? I want to tell you a true story. Before I do this, you need just a little background information. When Regena was carrying our children I gave each one a name by which I would call the baby. Those names were replaced by Eli, Hope, and Noah Grace. A few weeks ago, Noah was sick, and taking some medication which seemed to make her a little stranger than normal. On the way home from Wednesday night services she was jabbering and singing in the backseat. Here's Regena's account of the conversation we had: Dennis and I in the front seat of the car, Noah singing nonsense in the back... Dennis said, "What is IT doing?" I said, "IT is entertaining herself." I remembered he had specific names for each child before they were born because he did not want them called "IT". Tonight he said, "That was before we knew what they would become." Later on Noah saw the above conversation on facebook and made the comment "This IT is what you made me become." Besides being a little strange the conversation has a couple of valid points. First, it is hard for us as parents to imagine what our children will become. I doubt my parents, a mother that is 5 feet 2 inches and a father that was about 5 feet 9 inches tall, imagined having a son that stands over 6 feet 2 inches tall. What we do know is that our children will grow up to become something. As adults they will have to answer for what they do. "The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself" (Ezekiel 18.20). Parents generally want their children to become happy, productive, god fearing adults. Unfortunately that does not always happen. This gets me to my second point, they become what we train them to become. "Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22.6). Our children will, for the most part, act and think the way we teach them to act and think. That may be good or bad, but it is the general rule. No idea has been more destructive to the family than the one that says we should let our children learn by themselves. We as parents are told to bring up our children in the training and admonition of the Lord, Ephesians 6.4. Timothy's genuine faith was not by accident, but by design as his mother and grandmother taught him the Holy Scriptures, 2 Timothy 1.5; 3.15. Teaching our children to have values based on God's word is part of our responsibility. We need to teach them to think for themselves, but that does not mean we should not teach them godly values. It is then up to that child to accept God's word. No parent wants to wake up one day and wonder what has become of their children. Therefore, we need to make sure we are helping our children become something God will like later on. -- Dennis Tucker |