children are a treasure

I heard Melanie Stockstill speak on Monday morning. She is a beautiful woman who has raised 6 children, home schooled all of them! Now that is amazing.

What she had to share was like water to my soul, so I thought I would share some of the nuggets of gold on my blog....

LOVE

Children are a treasure and a gift from the Lord.

Imagine God himself gave you a little baby, all snuggled up in a blanket and warm. And He said to you, I'm giving you this child as a gift, he's my special treasure, and I entrust him to you for a season. And I entrust to you to raise him to serve me, and for you to give him back to me when he is 18 to serve my kingdom. Wouldn't you feel like God had given you a special treasure and gift, and also a charge? How privileged would you feel? Wouldn't you need to ask for wisdom regularly on how to raise this child of God's?

Well, that is our children. God has a plan for each child, their future is special to him, their hearts are precious to him, and we are to raise them for that great future in God's plan.

We love them, not because they are perfect, but because they are God's precious treasure.

Psalm 127:3 "...children are a gift of the LORD"

DISCIPLINE

This is my favourite proverb on discipline...

Proverbs 29:13 "Discipline your children; you'll be glad you did—they'll turn out delightful to live with." 

Discipline is about raising godly children without rebellion in their hearts. 

The thing about helping your children to be disciplined, is that we have to be disciplined first. We all know that children will do what they see done not what they are told to do.

We need to firstly have self-control ourselves, to be consistent in following through on consequences, to be consistent in loving and having grace and to not discipline out of anger. 

I've seen this happen for us, when the kids know that mum and dad are serious, that if you break that rule there are consequences and we will follow through, and that we won't get all angry (showing self-control ourselves), that the kids do learn the boundary.

Melanie talked about being humble. We all know that we did the same things or worse. 

She talked about the biblical way to raise children. That when Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eve, God set clear boundaries for them and clear consequences. And though God was loving and gracious to cover their sin, he never reneged on the consequences. He never asked why they did something, but just asked for a confession.

We want our kids to take responsibility, to make a quick confession, and that we always follow through on the already stated consequence. This helps them to grow up into adults who are quick to recognise and admit their mistakes, taking responsibility, and also acknowledging that doing the wrong thing in life has consequences.

And God always comforts after discipline if there is clear repentance. We should do the same.

FAITH

No one believes in their kids as much as you do! Melanie talked about having faith for our children. Believing great things for them, and preparing them for great things in life.

And when things aren't going so great, still believing for them, and praying for them.

She spoke about when one of her children went quite wayward as an adult and how she would fear for his life each night. But God put a verse in her heart, that her son would love God with all his heart, mind and strength. She began to pray and speak this verse over his life in her prayertime, and soon she began to believe that this was his future. Instead of being fearful for her son's future, she began to have faith for his future. And it wasn't long before her prayers were answered.

We can choose to fear for our children or we can choose to have faith for them and believe great things for them.

Lastly Melanie spoke about leaving an inheritance for our children, not a monetary one or a physical one, but leaving them an inheritance of faith filled, love filled, godly parents who love each other and their children, and inheritance of parents who love God's word and doing good.

Earthly riches may last a few days, but heavenly riches last for eternity.

Well, I hope you enjoyed those insights from Melanie Stockstill. I know that we can change the world, if we raise our children with love, discipline and faith.