preserving the righteous seed

Rearing children is the most important thing you will ever do in your life. It is nothing less than an opportunity to actively participate in God's redemptive plan. Few parents understand the great privilege it represents or the magnitude of their responsibility before God.

Throughout the Bible, God has conveyed His desire to estab-lish an order that would bring about a righteous seed. He could have lived for Himself, and skipped the pain of loving rebel-lious children but instead, He chose the role of a father.

God sent Jesus, His only begotten Son, to earth to shed His righteous blood that He might gain other sons and daughters and leave a pattern of life for us to follow.

Our goal as Christian parents is to duplicate His righteous life for our children that they might be prepared to choose God's will and God's ways for their lives.

The problem is that childrearing can be a slippery slope. I know because I have raised four sons and two daughters of my own. It is easy to feel overwhelmed and intimidated. In the early churches, there were special benches for women who were widows with grown children. This was possibly a place of honor, but more than that, it was probably intended to iden-tify the women who were qualified to give advice to the younger women because of their experience.

Though we do not have benches set aside for such women in our churches today, there remains a great need for the wisdom and encouragement of those who have traveled the road ahead and are now able to provide guidelines to help along the way. Experience counts!