Children First - Really! (2)

It is easy to see that to disagree with the problem created by our humanistic system’s encouragement that children are first, is to tackle a social system that is influencing us to surrender the order of the family set up by Jehovah God.  To accept the concept of children being first or of greatest priority in the family is not only to reject God’s order but also, ultimately, to reject God.

            When we reject God’s order for the family we take away the responsibility that God has ordained with His design for the family.  We often talk about our homes falling apart and ask the question what is going to be done.  So human beings sit down, rejecting basic principals set forth by a caring Creator and tackle the family humanistically.  Which in the end is to give up on God and settle for Satan.

            The reason there are so many fatherless homes in our nation, and around the world, is because we have taken God and His word, His instructions, His eternal message away.   God’s word has been made to seem archaic, disruptive, judgmental, and uninformed.  Surely a document produced over 2000 years ago, in the thinking of some, has no concept of relativity for today, Jesus freaks not welcomed.

            So what is to be done?  I would think first of all that we ought not to be ashamed of believing totally in the inspired word of God.  We should not be ashamed on standing in the word of God – you know “Standing on the Truth.”  We can do this when we understand – believe- that in God’s word we find the truth.  Jesus said that such truth, which found in God’s word, is that which sets one free (John 8:23).  Jesus goes on to say that if we find our freedom in Him we truly will be free (John 8:36).  

            God’s order of things for the home is clear, with this order comes responsibility.  To the Corinthians Paul teaches that God is the head of Christ, Christ is the head of man, and man is the head of woman; this is God’s created order (1 Corinthians 11:3).  He goes on in Ephesians to tell us that husbands are to love their wives as strongly as Christ loved the church.  Of course, Jesus died for the church.  Wives are to respect their husbands and the fathers are to raise their children in the Lord (Ephesians 5:22-6:4).  We must remember that, according to Jehovah, that children are a gift to the marriage union (Psalm 127:3-5).  The scriptures nowhere say that children are to be first in the family.  First should be Jehovah God, then God’s order is to be followed.

            In the end, as a church and society, God gives free will.  He gives the opportunity to make the choices and with those comes either success or failure in the family.  It is time to lay politics and society aside and stand on God’s truths.  Children are to respect their parents not to rule their parents (Ephesians 6:1-3).  When children obey and respect their parents’ success follows (Ephesians 6:3).

            If you really want to know what brought about the break down of the family look into God’s word.   There you will learn that the family’s destruction has come about because we have pushed God’s word aside and no longer respect His created order.          

           

Children First - Really! (1)

            I love reading personalized license plates and trying to figure out what they are saying, can be somewhat challenging at times.  Aside from personalized plates many states have some designated plate designs.  One such plate in Virginia, reads “Children First.”  On the surface this may sound great and much needed.  However such teaching is destructive for the family unit and is not taught through God’s Word.  Don’t leave, the government can be wrong in the instructions they give the family.

            When one or both parents put their children above the commitment and responsibility due his or her spouse the walls will tumble.  Children are the outcome of a relationship between a man and woman in the marriage bond; this is how God has ordained it (Psalm 127:3-5).  Being the result of the marriage union does not give children priority in the home.  When children become first in the home others take second or last – this will never work.  Again, it is not biblical.  God has instructed the husband to love his wife as Christ loved the church and the wife is to respect her husband (Ephesians 5:22-33).

            In homes where children are first, God and His Word take second or last place.  In such homes there can and in many cases will be much unrest between dad and mom because one or the other has become last in the family relationship.  In such homes discontent often grows into anger, mistrust and in some cases unfaithfulness.

            Jehovah God does teach us that children are a gift (Psalm 127:3,5).  Also, fathers are to raise their children in the ways of the Lord (Deuteronomy 6:4-6; Ephesians 6:1-4).  There is no teaching within the Scriptures that we are to love our children above Him and our spouse.

            If we want to raise healthy children it is needful to raise them in a home where mom and dad are focused first on God and next on one another.  Children in such homes will never come up short; also, in such homes children will learn more of the sacrificial relationship that God has with us.

Do Children Belong In The Worship Assembly?

            Don’t you just love it when someone asks you a question, especially when you get to answer?  Ok, maybe you might like the being asked or not.  On the other hand a question can really become challenging when you are asking yourself the question and demanding that you answer your own question confirming your belief

            It is time that as Christians we ask this simple question of ourselves concerning children in the worship assembly.  After all babies and toddlers can be a disruption and certainly, for the parents, a major distraction.  Surely something should be done about that which jeopardizes our order in worship.  Would you agree?  We do not want to upset the older Christians or visitors.  I, personally, would not agree.

            I am a baby boomer and I remember forty years ago when preachers and elders were asking parents to take their children to the nursery or cry room.  After all, we didn’t want distractions from the preaching of the Word.  Then came junior worship, with the purpose of teaching our children how to worship and taking distractions once again away from the adults in the worship assembly; of course, this took the children away from watching and learning from their parents.  These couple of things seemed to be the direction of a church that was on the move and following the example of more successful churches.  Success became the mark of maturity, especially focusing on the ideal of “mega” success.

            First of all, I am not sure that such requests are even scriptural.  In Deuteronomy 31:10-12, men, women and children, together, were to be assembled for the “reading of the law.”  Also, in Deuteronomy 6:1-9, grandfathers and fathers were to teach their sons.  Moving into the New Testament church, fathers are to bring their children “up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:1-5).  Fathers cannot teach their children about worship when they turn them over to someone else.

            Do I believe children should be in the worship assembly?  Absolutely!  There are times that distractions from children are inevitable, but as a preacher I love to hear the cries of the newborn, see the smiles of toddlers, and hear them say such things as “look, what’s that?”  I can also empathize with the parents of chi

ldren and the challenge they can present.  But it is just for a short time out of our lives.  Understand please, our children are God’s creation, their image glorifies Him, and they most definitely need to be with God’s people in worship.   I am persuaded, through Scripture, that Jehovah God loves His creation; our children are His creation.  Let’s keep them present in every aspect of our worship to our Creator God.