Verse of the day: 1 Samuel 2:22, Now Eli was very old; and he heard everything his sons did to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.
Here is a very sad situation. As a parent, I know that it is heartbreaking for us to see our children go down the wrong path and stray from the Lord. Even worse, is a Christian parent who desires that their child seek God and live godly, but instead see a child, or children, who reject the Lord and live like the world. As parents, we have a great responsibility to raise our children in such a way that they are encouraged to accept Jesus as Savior and serve the Lord with their lives. It is our responsibility to teach them the importance of prayer, God’s Word, and the local church. As they grow older, our desire is that they will become independent in their faith, making their own personal choice to accept the Lord and serve Him. God makes us a promise that we can hold onto in Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” I would like to remind us all that the promise that they will not depart does not mean that they will never stray. It is foolish to think that our children will not stray from the truth or from God, when we know very well that we too have our times of rebelling in our own way. However, as parents, we are not to give up. We are to continue praying for them and we must always stand ready to correct them, in love, if needed, and always be there for them when they have turned back to the Lord, if they need our help and accountability. This is where many of us, like Eli, fail our children, and more importantly, fail God. One of the things that contributes to the corruption of our children is our failure to discipline them. We have bought into the world’s philosophy, and lie, that disciplining our children will somehow damage them. I cringe when I hear a Christian say that they do not discipline their child, or children, because it is not right. I understand that sometimes we grow up in homes where there is no balance between discipline and abuse. Abusing a child is NEVER acceptable, and those that do will answer to the Lord. However, for us, as followers of Christ, when we say that we do not discipline our children, we are contradicting the One who knows best how to raise the children He has blessed us with, and who really belong to Him. I have heard Christians use the excuse that they do not discipline their children because they “love” them. Proverbs 13:24 clearly says, “He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly.” Proverbs 23:13-14 also says, “Do not withhold correction from a child, for if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. 14 You shall beat him with a rod, and deliver his soul from hell.” Proverbs 29:15 warns, “The rod and rebuke give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.” I could go on and on because God speaks much about how we as parents should discipline our children, if we truly love them. As our children grow older and into adulthood, if we have done due diligence to discipline them when they were younger, we should transition from disciplining them to speaking to them and giving them advice from God’s Word. Note that I said give advice, not nag. For God will still hold us accountable if we see them go down the wrong path, but we fail to address it with them. This was Eli’s great fault, and God held him accountable. Even though he points out that what they were doing was wrong in verses 23-25, he does nothing further to stop them from desecrating the office they held as priests. In 1 Samuel 3:13-1, in Samuel’s first prophecy, God said this about the house of Eli, “For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain them. 14 And therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.” As parents, our children never become too old for us to play a part in their lives when it comes to giving them advice and doing what we can to steer them in the right direction. Ultimately, it will be their decision whether they will follow our advice and truly seek the Lord; but just as God will hold us personally responsible for our choices, He will hold them personally responsible for their choices. Our relationship with our children will change, and should change, as they grow older, but our role as a parent only ends when the Lord calls us home to be with Him.
Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive Him and His gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).
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