Parents save up for your children




Scripture

Here for this third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden to you; for I do not seek what is yours, but you; for children are not responsible to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.
(2 Corinthians 12:14 NASB)
I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?
(2 Corinthians 12:15 NASB)

 

Observation


Paul was talking here in a spiritual and physical sense. He was going to come and visit his spiritual children in Corinth for the third time and he wanted to make sure that they understood that he was not coming to be a burden on them. Why? Because he was their spiritual father and as such, it was his responsibility to care for them, and not for them to care for him. He was ready to give out all that he had for them because of his deep love for those children.

 

Application


As human parents we know what it's like to want to do everything we possibly can for our children. Parents sacrifice for their children. They give up selfish wants and desires to give their children the very best that they can. They make sure their children are well-clothed and well-fed. They sacrifice for them to be educated and they love them with all their hearts! At least, that is God's intention. Sadly, I'm afraid that we live in a day and age where there are parents who don't put the best interest of their children first. Somehow this idea has become distorted and there is the idea that the children are there to care for the parents, even from a young age. When did all of this get turned around? Could it possibly be because we don't have our spiritual house in order? When we love God and then love others, it means that we put our family in front of ourselves. It means that we would do just about anything for those children, if it were in their best interest. Why? Because we love them so very much. As God's children this is the kind of parent we are called to be -- to do everything that we can to take care of our children.

Within the spiritual realm we are also to have children. God places people along our paths that need him and we have the blessed opportunity to become spiritual parents to them. We are to love them and lead them and not be a burden to them. Being a spiritual parent takes time and energy, but it also has eternal rewards, and along the way we will learn things about a hurting and needy world that we would never have imagined. And like the Apostle Paul we are to be spent and expended for these individuals.

Finally, If we walk with the Lord, we will have children -- either physical and/or spiritual. It is our responsibility to care for them. If we are to care for them, we need to save up for them, and not they for us. That means that I must be learning and drawing closer to God on a daily basis so that I have something to give to those children placed into my life. I am not to be a spiritual drag on any of them, but instead, I am to be a spiritual lift up to them. For me to be a good parent spiritually, I have to feed my own soul spiritually. May we never think that it is the children who need to be saving up for the parents!

 

Prayer


Lord, please help me to be the kind of spiritual parent that I need to be and to be dependent upon you for all things. Amen.

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