Faith-bearing Seed for the Soul
"While the earth remaineth,
Seedtime and harvest
....shall not cease"

Genesis 8:22

Expect Your Children to be Blessings!

Picture this scene:

"Hurry! Brush your hair again...they're coming to the door!"

The doorbell rings...you open it to face a clean cut, smiling,

handsome freshman football player...he's holding a huge,

elaborately decorated mum flower in his hands. He has on

dress jeans, a REAL shirt like the ones that you iron. He's

arrived to take your daughter to the "Homecoming" football

game. What? No purple, spiked hair? No pierced earring in

his nose, tongue or bellybutton? And he has REAL shoes on,

too! His breath smells of mouthwash and not alcohol, and his

clear innocent eyes can look straight into yours. They are

not glazed over from illegal drugs running through his veins.

His MOTHER is standing behind him, all smiles. Then, slightly

furrowing her brow in an apologetical gesture, she says,

"I've come along with him to help pin the flower on her...it's

his first time." You think to yourself... "Umm humm. I

know the feeling! You wanted to be here for moral support

and to help try to calm his nerves. But, WHO really is the

most nervous of the two of you? Couldn't wait to see what

his date looked like and find out if your son has his dad's good

taste in women, could ya?" You invite them to come in.

The rather bashful, but beaming, "pretty as a picture" blonde

comes down the hall. After introductions, it takes three people

to get the flower, with streamers cascading nearly down to her

knees, pinned on. You're sure his mom must have been thinking,

"Maybe my husband was right when he thought HALF the price

spent would have been sufficient...BUT, we didn't want our son

to look cheap...first impressions are lasting. And besides, it will

be worth the price if this flower makes her feel as good about

herself as I did when I received a special flower, when dating."

After his "arm garter" of gaily decorated school symbols and

streamers is in place, pictures have been taken, and his mom

has reassuringly said that she and her husband would be staying

for the game too, they get into the car, where dad has been

waiting and praying that his son won't be as awkward as he was

on his first dates.

This may have sounded like a scene out of an early 50's movie,

but it wasn't. It happened in my home recently, and is typical of

what is happening in home after home, on crisp fall nights, in

wholesome suburban communities all over our nation.

Too often we focus on the "out of the ordinary." Many voices

out there monopolize our attention without concern for moral

or decent standards. They bully us into thinking that extremes

are the norm, since only their voice can be heard above the quiet

voice of our conscience, which can become numbed by all the noise

of society. Perhaps it is designed to get us to relax our standards

and to lower our expectations. Through a lot of hype and focusing

our attention on the extremes, we can lose sight of all the good

that surrounds us and we can be deceived to believe that what

is happening in a smaller segment of our society is, "just the way

things are EVERYWHERE today," when in truth, it's a much lower

percentage that are the immoral, drug glazed, mixed up part of

our society. Once we are convinced that they are the norm, the

next step is to get us to think, "Well, after all, if this is so, and

since everybody else is doing it...why shouldn't we just accept it?"

Hebrews 13:8

"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today and for ever."

Christ's standards have not changed, neither have the hearts

and actions of true believers changed. God's Word stands

uncompromised, the same, unchanged. Because of this, we

who trust in Him can EXPECT our children to be blessings.

Isaiah 44:3,4 (emphasis mine)

"For I will pour out water upon him that is thirsty, and floods

upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and

my blessing upon thine offspring. And they shall spring up as

among the grass, as willows by the water courses."

James 1:17 (emphasis mine)

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and

cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no

variableness, neither shadow of turning."

We will get what we expect from the Lord. Don't buy the lie

that, "This is the new millennium and to keep up with the times

we need to accept the unacceptable." Rather, expect the

acceptable from your kids, live it yourself before them, and

that's what you will get...This is God's promise to the upright,

and He won't be changed.

Rooted and grounded in the love of Christ Jesus,

Marlene JuHaros,

TexasSower

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"Keep on sowing your seed, for you never know

which will grow--perhaps it all will."

Eccl. 11:6

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