By Joey and Carla Link
November 3, 2021
Have you ever thought about how your child was designed? As Christ-followers, we believe God is the creator of life. We know a life comes from one sperm fertilizing one egg. But did you know over 100 million sperm can be released at a time? God is the one who designated that one sperm to reach its destination. The way your child is, his/her inherited gene pool, skills, talents, strengths, weaknesses and whether he is a “his” or “her” was all chosen by God.
I (Carla) am the only one in my immediate family with red hair. My dad had 8 siblings, and not one of them had red hair. Can you imagine all the cousins I have? No redheads there. I am guessing if I go back enough generations, I will find one here and there, but the obvious reason I have red hair has very little to do with my gene pool, but had everything to do with God’s decision that was what He wanted for me.
In the Old Testament, God gave specific instructions on how His tabernacle was to be made:
“So, Bezalel, Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the Lord has given skill and ability to know how to carry out all the work of constructing the sanctuary are to do the work just as the Lord has commanded. Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the Lord had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work.”Exodus 36:1-2
This is SO COOL! God was having his sanctuary made, the place that would be set apart to worship Him. While Israel was in Egypt before they reached the Promised Land, God made sure Bezalel, Oholiab and others would perfect the skills He had given them at birth. My (Carla) grandfather was good with his hands. So are his 2 grandsons. They took a natural skill and have perfected it over the years into a lucrative career in construction.
God has a reason for the way your children are. God has a purpose for your children’s lives. Parents are the tools God uses to both train and equip their kids for the purpose God gave them life and breath for.
When a person becomes a Christ-follower, he/she gets a “spiritual gift” from God to help that person fulfill what God’s purpose for him is. God expects parents to train up their kids in the way they are to go, in preparation for the plans and purposes God has for each of your kids’ lives including the receipt of this gift.It’s easy to see how different children are from one another, in spite of them all coming out of the same womb. And God has a different and unique plan for each of them. But He gave them all the same 2 parents, knowing you have what it takes to raise them His way. This means you must work to help your kids have right motivation for what they do and how they do it. What is your child’s motivation for what they do and how they do it? Fear of getting in trouble, or for approval of doing what is right?
It also means your kids will learn to work to the best of their ability, putting forth excellence in everything they do, which means they will learn to work hard and be diligent in all God wants them to do. Teaching them “putting forth excellence” in all they do is a job you get to do, to train them that anything less is not acceptable to you. Calling our kids back to redo a job again and again wasn’t our favorite thing to do and it won’t be yours either.
He wants you to train your kids to be Godly, which means, He wants you to train them to follow Him in all that they do. I Corinthians is a great verse to have your kids live out:“So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do,do it all for the glory of God.”