The boys are growing up way too fast! Gabe turned two on September 29th. I still can't believe it. It seems like he should just be turning one...but he's two! That's half way to preschool, a third of the way to little league. He's almost a sixth of the way to being a teenager, an eighth of the way to a driver's license, and a ninth until he graduates high school. These past two years have been a blur. How fast will the others go?Every time the boys have a birthday, I'm reminded of how little time I have with them. You blink and they grow an inch. They go to sleep and wake up the next day a pound heavier. My time with them is really short (and that is given that the Lord should, in kindness, extend our lives so long).
I am especially reminded of how little time I have to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Eph 6:4). On Gabe's birthday I was meditating on Deuteronomy 4:9: "Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children." The imperatives are two-fold: Keep your soul diligently and teach your children. I must lead them by example and by word. It is not enough to have one without the other. I must keep my soul diligently AND teach the things of the Lord to my kids.
I cannot focus on my own spiritual life to the neglect of my boys. In working on my own heart, I must work on theirs as well. And if I am lax and fail to take care of my soul, I am not the only one affected. Providentially, a few days after meditating on Deuteronomy 4, I read Andrew Fuller's Causes for Declinsion in Religion and Means of Revival (I commend it to all men, particularly those in or going into ministry). While many applicable quotes could be taken from Fuller, I want to mention only two. In warning in the danger of keeping a spiritual status quo rather than aspiring to holiness, Fuller says: "those who are contented not to do better than other people, generally allow themselves to do a little worse." His point is that if we are happy to compare ourselves to other Christians rather than striving hard after Christ, we will be willing to give ourselves over to temptation. It is just like in a race: If we get lazy, we're going to get beat. We should not run to keep pace with the pack, but instead set the course, lest we fall further and further behind. For my boys, if I am lax about my spiritual life, I do not set the example for them that I ought.
The second Fuller quote builds upon the first. He says, "A single defeat or slip, of which we may think but little at the time, may be copied by our children, servants, neighbors, or friends, over and over again; yea, it may be transmitted to our posterity, and pleaded as a precedent for evil when we are no more! Thus it may kindle a fire which, if we ourselves are saved from it, may nevertheless burn to the lowest hell and aggravate the everlasting misery of many around us, who are flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone!" YIKES! Our subtle sins may be used as a precedent for evil. Fuller is right. Our actions have a lasting impact on those around us. Therefore let us strive all the more to imitate Christ in our words, thoughts, and deeds. Let us pursue him with all fervency, as if not only our lives, but the lives of others depended upon it. But we must do so not by our own effort, but in recognition of our utter need for and desire for Christ.
But we must also remember the second part of Deuteronomy 4:9. We not only set an example for our children by keeping our souls diligently, we must also teach them. I am grateful to the Lord for what he has taught Phyllis and me regarding biblical parenting. We are so indebted to the Word, our church, and the seminary for teaching us more about what it means to raise children who love the Lord. Ladan has been memorizing Scripture and catechism questions, both the boys love church, reading Bible stories from the Big Picture Story Bible or the Jesus Storybook Bible, and prayer. Gabe regularly grabs our hands, tilts his head down with eyes fixed upward on us and says, "Pay!", which means pray. He'll do it over and over again. I am so grateful that the Lord is working on their hearts and I continue to pray that he will lead them to place their trust in Christ as Lord and Savior.
Birthdays are great milestones and opportunities to reflect on what the Lord has done. But they are also much needed reminders that the course is not yet complete. I still have a long way to go in working on my heart so that I might be an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity (1 Timothy 4:12). I still have much more to learn in leading my family in worship to God. I praise God for these little reminders of how short life is and I pray that by God's grace I will make every day count.
"Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers." - 1 Timothy 4:16
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