Guard what has been entrusted to your care

 Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith. 1 Timothy 6:20 NIV

Our children watch everything we do. I’m not just talking about the wee ones, either. The bigger kids, our teenagers, they understand the struggles, the temptations, the warnings, and they want to know if we can withstand. They want to know if we can hold up under the pressure as well as we expect them to.

Our children’s care, well being and salvation rest, in whole or in part in our hands. We have been given these souls to grow, to teach, to love. What we do, our actions and our in-actions have direct correlations to how they decide to live their lives.

It’s not psycho-analyst mumbo jumbo I’m talking about. Our kids watch the decisions we make, they listen to the words we use, and they feel the love we do or don’t show them. They watch us fall and they wait to see what we do with it. Do we stand back up with grace, or do we kick and scream while we’re on the ground.

Do we do what we expect them to do in the same situation?

Be the parent God called you to be. Guard the possession he has entrusted to you. Turn from the mindless chatter on the television and in the world and take the one opportunity you are given for each child and raise that child to love and honor God, so that your child may do the same to their child.

Father, wrap your arms around my children. Fortify them with the strength and the courage to stand against anything this world throws at them. Help me help them to know you in the same way they know me. Let them see me love you the way I pray they will love you.