There's a verse I wrote in the front of my Bible 15 years ago. It's found in 3 John 1:4, and it reads "I have no greater joy that to hear that my children walk in truth." Every parent should join me in praying that prayer.
In Deuteronomy chapter 6, Moses was teaching the Israelites how to live godly lives by living by God's commands and also the need to teach them to our children. What a godly heritage to leave our children, to know they'll teach their own children the Word of God! How rewarding is that!
I was talking to God a couple of weeks ago and mentioned to Him that I missed our youngest son, Josh. I never asked Him for anything, I just said "Oh, Abba, I miss Josh!" Now, Josh travels all the time with his job and has a very busy schedule. I hadn't seen him since August. Well, the other night he called to say his flight to Arkansas was diverted to Charlotte, and he couldn't get a flight out until the following day. I KNOW!! We jumped in the car and were on our way in an instant. We pulled up in front of the terminal, and there he was! God brought him to me! When I got out of the car, I was greeted with a smile and a long, warm bear hug from the one I missed so much. He was right in front of me! As busy as his schedule was, my Abba, my El-Shaddai brought him home to his mother! That was a gift from Him to me. And it gets better!
As I sat in the back seat, I could only smile as I listened to him talk about God from the time we picked him up to midnight that night when we all went to bed, and it continued until we dropped him off again at Charlotte Douglas Airport in the morning!
In the last couple of months, he and my daughter in law, Janet, realized they weren't living for God but for themselves. He talked candidly about the money he's wasted and the quest for money that drove him to what he thought was success. The only trouble was that they left God out. They left God out of everything. Deuteronomy 6:4-5 says "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! And you shall love the LORD your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart." There will always be tough times, but the test will be how much we love God and honor Him through those trials. He had a hard time dealing with my illness and then his grandfather's death this past year. It affected his work life greatly, and then it finally came back to him. The Truth came back to him.
Deuteronomy 6:7 says "And you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up." We taught our sons the Word of God. We've lived the Word of God. Lennie had family devotions in the mornings. Our sons had the privilege to be able to attend a Christian school and a Bible believing church. We talked about God in our home daily. Oh, our home wasn't perfect, but our sons knew we loved and honored the Lord God. And now it has come back. A verse I have clung to is in Proverbs 22:6. It says "Train up a child in the way he should go and, when he is old, he will not depart from it." All the teaching and living the Word, the prayer I prayed daily that I would hear that my sons walked in Truth, God graciously answered. Both my sons walk in the Truth! It has been this mother's dream. It has been this mother's prayer! I can't stop smiling!
