Genesis 45:1-15
Psalm 78
1 Corinthians 7:32-40
Mark 6:1-13
Being a Good Example for Our Children
I will never forget holding my oldest son for the first time, the excitement of becoming a mother to a beautiful son and the amazing blessing God had placed in my hands. The immediate and overwhelming feeling of love and protection I felt for him was truly indescribable. I cannot help remembering how at that moment that I convinced myself I was going to be the perfect mother to him and he was going to be the perfect son for me. Well, we all know how this story unfolds! While I truly still have that overwhelming feeling of love and protection for my son, I am not the perfect mom and he is not the perfect son, and luckily for both of us, God does not expect us to be perfect. What He does expect of us, however, is to learn from our mistakes and to look to Him in hope and to pass that expectation of hope onto our future generations. How many mistakes are we repeating over and over and yet God continues to forgive and to forgive? At what point are we to take responsibility for those sins and to stop the behavior of our ancestors? We need to teach our youth through OUR example to be good stewards, faithful servants and men and women who walk the path our God intends us to walk.
Psalm 78 illustrates this beautifully. The example I have taken from this and hope to carry with me through the Lenten season is “...so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deed but would keep his commands.” Psalm 78:6-7.
Courtneay Odden