January 9, 2010

Today's reading: Genesis 25, 26, 27; Psalm 9, 39, 69, 99, 129; Proverbs 9

Genesis 26:34-35, "And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah."

Earlier tonight we had the opportunity to go to a Church and hear a family sing. We love music and this particular family is very dear to us so we went to hear our friends sing. We were not disappointed. Having known this family for well over ten (10) years we were fully aware of how wonderful the evening was going to be.

One of the best parts of the evening was listening to the youngest daughters give testimonies and praise God for everything from their salvation to their new boyfriend. These young ladies (and I do mean ladies), love God with all of their heart and they seek to serve Him. What a great family. Their parents are so proud of them and they should be. These parents have loved them and raise them according to God's Word and they turned out to be fantastic, godly young women.

I was reading the above passage in Genesis 26 and my heart broke. As a parent you have such high hopes for your children. As Christians we want our sons to be pastors or missionaries and our daughters to be pastor's wives or missionaries. We have such hopes and dreams for them. We pour into them everything we think they need to become what God wants them to be. Yet, they have a mind, will and emotions of their own. Sometimes they exercise them in ways that do not please their parents.

I know a parent who's child just turned of age to legally move out on their own. The parents did not approve of the choice the child made in the person they were dating and they expressed it to the child. As soon as the child could they told their parents that they were moving out and there was nothing they could do about it. The child further told them that they had no say so in the child's choice of who they would or would not date. My heart broke for this family.

It was the same in our passage today. Esau was a big boy now of forty (40) years old and he was making decisions for himself. The problem was that the decisions he was making were contrary to what his parents would have him to make. We have all been there and done that. I can imagine the heartache and heartbreak these parents felt as they watched their adult son make choices that would drag him down and not build him up.

Doing our best to raise our children in the things of the Lord and the Church is not always a guarantee that they will turn out right. It is up to us to do right according to the Scriptures and then release them to God. Easily said. Easily done... not so much. Parents, how are we doing?