One of my favorite lines is from JC Ryle’s essay called “Duties of Parents.” Ryle hasn’t been around for a hundred years, but has a ton of wisdom for us today. He wrote:
I know that you cannot convert your child. I know well that they who are born again are born, not of the will of man, but of God... We have only to do as the servants were commanded at the marriage feast in Cana, to fill the water-pots with water, and we may safely leave it to the Lord to turn that water into wine. (Taken from: http://www.anglicanlibrary.org/ryle/parents/index.htm).
I love that picture. We do our part by pouring everything we’ve got into our children and then the miracle of salvation is out of our hands. That is up to the Lord. We cannot force our children into the Kingdom. We cannot get their ticket for them. Our children’s salvation (the hope of every Christian parent) is ultimately out of our hands.
I have to ask why. Why is the greatest hope of Christian parenting (the salvation of our children) something that is out of our hands? I believe it forces us to be dependent on the Father. That’s right where He wants us. He loves us to recognize our need for Him and often leads us down roads that show us that we need Him more than we need anything in the universe. Then we fall on our faces and ask Him to work. We admit our need. He gets the glory.
No comments:
Post a Comment