Protecting the Heart of my Children

“My Greatest Joy”

            As a mother, what one thing about your children will bring you the most joy?  We experience that joy and relief when we are holding a healthy baby in our arms.  As our children grow into the preschool and kindergarten years, there is joy as we become acquainted with their interesting little personalities.  Admit it; we are happy during the elementary years when others comment on the beauty or intelligence of our children.  Just up ahead will be those junior high and high school years and with it comes a child who is an academic success, an athletic star, popular, and attractive.  As mothers, we tend to be happy that our children are adjusting and fitting nicely into their world. The final season of preparing for college rapidly approaches at lightning speed. Your intelligent, dedicated, beautiful child is abounding with academic & athletic scholarships.  Marriage, successful careers, financially stability, and beautiful grandchildren hastily follow the completed seasons of a mother’s labor of love.  Does this paint picture of your greatest joy?

 Absolutely nothing in this picture is necessarily bad.  Even if our children has all of those characteristics and reaches their fullest potential, there is still something deep inside that as mothers we should want to develop as the core, the center, the heart of our children.  What do we want to sow into the hearts of our sweet children? What does God wants us to sow deep into the hearts of our children who He loves more than we can possibly love them?  III John 1:4 says, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth”.

What is the truth? The truth is simply God’s Word.  The truth is that God is a perfect God. He is the one and only Holy God.  The truth is that we all are sinners.  God hates our sin and it stands in the way of a personal intimate relationship with Him. We have to be punished for our sin and that punishment is death and eternal separation from God.  But God, in His infinite love, allowed His Son, Jesus Christ to pay the ultimate price for our sin when He died on that horrible cruel cross.  He died, was buried, and rose again so that we can experience that sweet intimate relationship and eternal life with Him.

As a Christian mom, I want my children to walk away with that truth in their hearts. I don’t want them just to know it, understand it, and believe it.  My greatest joy, my greatest desire is to see my children believing that truth and daily living that truth in their lives as children, as teenagers, as young adults, as a spouse, and as parents. I want them to take that truth and pass it on to future generations.

C. H. Spurgeon says in his commentary, “I fear that many, even among professors of religion, could not truthfully repeat my text; they look for other joy in their children, and care little whether they are walking in truth or not.” I see that as a warning to be ever so careful not to allow myself to get caught up in the world’s idea of what brings joy to a mother’s heart.  My actions and what I place as importance in the lives of my children is a testimony to what I believe the truth to be. Am I living out the truth in front of them?   In order for us to pass on this truth to our children, it is so vitally important that we not get caught up with this standard of the world, but rather that we live out the truth of God’s word, His sacrifice, and His love in our own personal lives.