God loves the number three. We have the Trinity; we have the triple braided cord; and we have the family. All are examples of God’s power in our lives. However, we may not associate the family with the number three unless we think of it as the three-part unit of father, mother, and children—the perfect love triangle.
Have you ever thought about why God created families? Why is the parent such an important part of a child’s life? I have a theory that God gave us parents because they are the first example of God/Jesus that we encounter. We have all heard stories about people with abusive fathers or negligent mothers who had a difficult time becoming Christians because they could not relate to God as their parent. The last thing they wanted in their lives was another disappointing parent.
The Christian man who was the most instrumental person in helping John and me fully commit our lives to Christ told us a very interesting story about his own experience in coming to Christ. Ed was an only child, and when he was a little boy his mother left his father and him. He spent his whole life mourning because his mother had deserted him and wondering what had prompted her to do it.
Even after Ed was grown, he still felt so unloved that he was unable to move past the hurt of having been deserted by his mother. One day when he was reading the Bible, he came across Isaiah 49 and read these words: “Can a mother forget her little child and not have love for her own son? Yet, even if that should be, I will not forget you.” (Living Bible)Ed said that the pain and sadness that had always been a part of his life just melted away and he knew that God was not only a father to him but a mother as well. From that moment he began to feel loved, and he began to heal.
Yes, God is the perfect parent who never deserts us and never stops loving us, but before we meet Him, we meet our earthly parents. For those of us who are parents it is imperative that we provide a good example for our children. They meet us long before they meet Jesus, and their initial opinion of Him is going to depend to a great extent on their opinion of us.
I never asked my children to do anything I was not willing to do myself. When we added scripture memorization to our spiritual training, I learned the same scriptures they did. I also adhered to the same television viewing rules that I had for them. We had very strict guidelines in terms of sexual content, language, and violence, and I never watched anything that I considered unacceptable for them. My youngest child moved out in 2003, and I still live my life by those rules that I set for my children so many years ago.
Remember, sin is not determined by the age of the sinner. Most things that are not appropriate for children are not appropriate for anyone. A simple test is to ask yourself why you object to your child being exposed to a particular movie or book or activity. If your objections are due to moral content, that particular activity is not appropriate for you either. If you ignore this obvious conclusion, you are sending a message that says, “It’s okay to do anything you want after you reach age twenty-one.”
Your children are always watching you. If you want them to live lives that honor Christ, you must commit your own life completely and without reservation. When you provide an example of genuine Christian living coupled with love for your spouse and love for your children, you are creating a love triangle that will stand the test of time.
Excerpted from "Looking Backward: My Twenty-five Years as a Homeschooling Mother" by Joyce Swann.
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