Here
is what all Christians need to ask: “Do we agree with the Bible and face
children with arms open in gratitude for the blessing of God, or do we turn our
face away from children and count as a curse what God calls a blessing?” There
is the reality that “a child may be an inconvenient blessing. A child will
usually be an expensive blessing. A child may and often will be a blessing that
takes us well outside our comfort zones and into the arms of grace. A child is
usually a blessing that will be accompanied by sleepless nights and many tears.
But he or she is a blessing, and we must not forget this. Parents struggling
with a demanding or wayward child need to remember to thank God for that son or
daughter, even as they pray urgently for grace to care for
them faithfully.”
But
why? Why are children such a blessing? One unique blessing is that, “they force
us to welcome into our circle strangers we have not chosen. Husband and wife
have chosen one another. But, however much they may have wanted a baby, they
did not choose this baby with these particular characteristics! This baby comes
into the family circle as a stranger, to be welcomed whatever his or her
character and future. And therefore in parenting we learn to welcome the
stranger, the one chosen by God for us to love. And we learn to love these
children out of love for the God who has entrusted them to us.” While we may
choose to have a child, ultimately conception, birth, and the unique
characteristics of a particular child are exclusively in the hands of
God. As parents, we have the challenge and the honor of loving the little
stranger God has given us, of extending godly hospitality to him or her.
“Someone has commented that the only home it is safe to be born into is a
hospitable home that welcomes outsiders into its circle. Children challenge our
self-centeredness and do us good.” ~ www.challies.com. Quotes are excerpts from Married for God
by Christopher Ash.
