“But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 19:14
There has been a lot in the news recently about the mistreatment of children. It is certainly the heart and desire of any good and moral people to protect and nurture children and be repulsed by their mistreatment. Children are a gift from God. They are, as the song says, “precious in His sight” and certainly they are precious in our sight. My wife and I are Great-grandparents. We are also great grandparents! Haha! What a blessing to be a parent, grandparent and great grandparent. With privilege comes responsibility. James Dobson wrote, “Children are not casual quests in our home. They have been loaned to us temporarily for the purpose of loving them and instilling a foundation of values on which their future lives will be built.” Remember the plaque that hung in many of our homes when we were children which read, “Christ is the Head of our house. The unseen Guest at every meal, the silent Listener of every conversation.”
Our Lord’s instruction and counsel to Fathers is found in Ephesians 6:4: “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Nurture means that which promotes growth, education and instruction. To feed, to nourish. Admonition is gentle reproof, counseling against a fault, caution, instruction in duties. The older and wiser women in the Bible were given the responsibility to “teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children.” Titus 2:4.
Recently, I spoke at the birthday party of a lady that was a member of a church that I pastored for thirty years. She was turning eighty years old. Her children rented a large room at a restaurant, invited seventy-five friends and relatives to share in this celebration and covered all the expenses. It was a marvelous afternoon. The theme that developed that day was taken from Proverbs 31 where the Bible speaks about the virtuous woman. Verse 28 of that chapter states, “Her children arise up, and call her blessed: her husband also, and he praiseth her.” What a wonderful heritage.
An old woman was noticed to be picking up something in the street. A policeman noticed the woman’s actions and watched her very suspiciously. Several times he saw her stoop, pick up something, and hide it in her bag. Finally, he went up to her and demanded, “What are you carrying off in your bag?” The timid woman did not answer at first, whereupon the officer, thinking that she must have found something valuable, threatened her with arrest. The woman opened her bag and revealed a handful of broken glass. “I just thought I would like to take it out of the way of the children’s feet,” she said. Oh, how we need people who care about what hurts “children’s feet.”