And The Child Grew
Submitted by Ted Mock
November 20, 2024
Lu 2:40 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.
Lu 2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.
It was a joy to watch our two children grow up. The Lord blessed us with healthy children who were not too difficult to raise, but not without difficulties. They are not perfect, but they turned out pretty good, in spite of the sometimes inferior parenting.
Jo and I recognize that the Lord was the doer of anything good put into their lives, and if we had it to do all over again, we could have done a better job. All this to say, I don’t have all the answers, but from the passages above I can give any parent clear goals for child rearing.
The Lord’s will is for all children to develop as He did, and every parent should do their best to see to it that they develop properly in all four areas. Every child is different with unique abilities, and tragically some with unique limitations, that range from the physical to the mental and environment they are born into.
The Lord grew physically in his stature. Children are born with different levels of health, but all parents need to provide the best nutrition, exercise, and rest.
The mind of every child should be increased in wisdom. Every child needs the opportunity to accept Christ and grow in spirit as a child of God. And every child needs to be taught how to grow socially in order to live with their fellow man.
I recently viewed a Ted Talk given by a gifted seven year old on the importance of the first five years of a child’s life, and how crucial they are, for the development of a child with both parents intimately involved.
The decision we made for Jo to stay home and raise our children was one we never regretted. You have only one chance to raise your child, and there will be plenty of time later to make money.
Consider – Give your child the gift of yourself for at least the first five years of their lives, and you will never regret it.
