PARENTHOOD WISDOM FROM 1 SAMUEL 1-2

Children are a blessing from God and they belong to Him. Whatever He pleases to do with them is His call and not ours. We are not owners of anything in this world; we are stewards of everything including our children. The Lord blessed us with Nehemiah for as long as He pleases and our role is to raise Him with the Gospel in hand and hold tight to the promises God gives us through His word. And it is a process of faith as we trust that He is in control and that He has a plan for him—a plan to prosper him, to give him a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).

1 Samuel 1:27 I prayed for this boy, and since the Lord gave me what I asked Him for, I now give the boy to the Lord. For as long as he lives, he is given to the Lord. Then He bowed and worshipped the Lord there

God is also a jealous God and every time we placed something/one ahead or above Him He is not pleased. We are not to place our children above God and worry about honoring them instead of God. God in his scripture says “I’ll honor those who honor Me.” And in reality, who can do a better work in raising my kid, me or God? I’ll put my trust in Him.

2 Samuel 2:29-30 …You have honored your sons more than Me, by making yourselves fat with the best part of all the offerings of My people Israel…I’ll honor those who honor Me, but those who despise Me will be disgraced.

Parents can’t afford to avoid restraining their children when necessary. In the verse above, Eli’s sons, who were entrusted with the Temple’s sacrifices, where desecrating the Lord’s offering from His people. They were literally taking the best out of the offering for themselves, something that didn’t please the Lord. And that wasn’t all, they were also sleeping around with women at the entrance to the tent of meeting. In short, they were not honoring the Lord as they were supposed to, but themselves instead. And the saddest part of the story is that Eli, their father, the one who was entrusted with his children didn’t do anything about out despite knowing the reality of their acts.

V. 22 Now Eli…heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel…

1 Samuel 3:13 I (God) told him that I am going to judge his family forever because of the iniquity he knows about: his sons are defiling the sanctuary, and he has not stopped them (he did not restrain them ESV).

As parents of Nehemiah we are responsible to raise him with the Gospel, with God’s ordinances, and to restrain him when necessary. As precious creations from God we cannot afford to do nothing as Eli, the consequences are vast and affect not only our family but the world (see Ch 2:27-36).

My prayer is that we honor God in our relationships with our children, keeping Him as a priority and trusting in Him as He guides us to raise our children with the Gospel, loving them and restraining them when necessary. May His will and not our will be done with all His children.