Children’s Day Message- A Charge To Parents

(Psa 127:1 NKJV) Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain.

(Psa 127:2 NKJV) It is vain for you to rise up early, To sit up late, To eat the bread of sorrows; For so He gives His beloved sleep.

(Psa 127:3 NKJV) Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward.

(Psa 127:4 NKJV) Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one's youth.

(Psa 127:5 NKJV) Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; They shall not be ashamed, But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.

The Architect of Parenting

(Psa 127:1 NKJV) Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain.

When it comes to the family and parenting, we need to realize that God is the Master Architect and instructions about family life, including marriage and child-rearing can be found in His Holy Word, the Bible. We run into all sorts of problems when we don't follow God’s design and pattern for marriage and the family that’s found in Scripture.

If you’ve ever tried to put something together without following the directions, you know what I’m talking about. I remember the time my son and I put together an 8’x8’ tool shed. You had to purchase the floor separately and so I made the decision to save some money and design my own floor.

I thought to myself, “Since the barn is going to be 8’ x 8’ all I need to do is build an eight foot square floor” and that’s exactly what I did. What I didn’t do was subtract the thickness of the walls which would have made the floor around 7.5’ square—so my floor was larger than the inside of the shed and we had to force the bottom of the shed to fit over the floor we made.

The shed we built was not the shed on the picture of the box the parts came in. It leaned; the doors did not fit squarely so bees and wasps and mice got it. Water leaked in and over time the floor began to sag and rot.

This is exactly what happens as some try to raise their kids. God has a “picture” of what the family should look like. Many do what I did with the shed: They try to build their family without paying attention to the directions, “God’s Holy Word.” When you do this your family doesn’t look like the picture. It is out of balance. All kinds of things creep their way in—the foundation begins to sift and rot away.

There is a Bible verse in John 15:5 where Jesus says, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

We need Jesus for everything—without Him we are nothing and can do nothing. The Psalmist says in verse 1, “Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it…”

A few days ago I got an email from a relative entitled, How do these people survive? It goes on to tell the stories of events that occurred in the lives of some people that make us wonder and ask ourselves, “How do they survive”?

The first story is about someone going to McDonald's. Looking at the menu they learn that you could order 6, 9 or 12 Chicken McNuggets. ?They asked for a half dozen nuggets. “We don't have a half dozen nuggets.” said the teenager at the counter. “You don’t!” said the customer. “That’s right, we only have 6, 9 or 12.” said the teenager. So the customer went on ahead and ordered “six” McNuggets.

Another story told of someone checking out at the local Wal-Mart with just a few items. They picked up one of those 'dividers' that are kept near the cash register. The customer places the divider between her things and the next customer’s items so they wouldn't get mixed up. ?After the girl had scanned all of the first customer’s items, she picked up the divider, looking everywhere for the barcode so she could scan it. Not finding the barcode, she asked the customer, “Do you know how much this is?” ?The customer said to her “I've changed my mind; I don't think I'll buy that today.” ?The cashier said 'OK,' and had no clue what had just happened. ??

A woman at work was seen putting a credit card into her floppy drive and pulling it out very quickly. When someone inquired as to what she was doing, she said she was shopping on the Internet and they kept asking for a credit card number, so she was using the ATM 'thingy.’