Children’s children are the crown of old men

.... And the glory of children is their father (Proverbs 17:6). The picture this evokes for me,  is of three generations of the ideal Jewish family gathered to celebrate shabbat on a Friday evening. In this ideal family there is mutual love, respect,  harmony and  shalom peace. In the midst of the chaos,  and the godlessness of these last days (2 Timothy 3:1, 2), you could be forgiven for wondering if such a family ever existed.  But I think about this in the same way I think about,  and seek to deal with,  a personal prophetic word.  Suppose you had a prophetic word “I see you as a business woman,  who uses her business to touch people,  and lead them  to Christ.” Such things have to be tested of course, but the point I am waning to make here, is that is she was convinced this was of the Lord, it would be something she  would need to press into.

I see such prophetic words,  as the Lord showing us what is possible, not something that automatically happens. So such a woman might have had a dream about a certain kind of business. And the prophetic word should be seen as encouragement to go ahead, and to be proactive in pursuing it. She might want to improve her person skills,  and  perhaps go to business school.  Likewise this morning's proverb is something God desires for all of us, and in spite of the chaos of many of our situations, He is telling us that this ideal family us something we should aim for,  and be proactive in pursuing.  It is a principle that God will move heaven and earth to reverse generational family dysfunction when, in radical obedience,  we turn to love Him with all our heart,  mind, soul and strength (Exodus 20:6; Mark 12:20).   When we do our part, we can claim the promise that He will restore the (often many) years the locusts have eaten (Joel 2:25).

If I am a parent of young children,  and there is still time, I need to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).  If that time has passed,  the very best thing I can do,  is to be in the process of being changed (2 Corinthians 3:18). In this way we show them the path to freedom! The Lord has raised up many resources in this hour,  to help us to deal with the issues we were handed down,  and which we likely also handed down. It's called Christ centred recovery. If I am a young child,  I need to obey my parents, and at any age to honour them.  We do not honour them for their faults, but because they gave us life. We honour them for the good things they did, and if we don't know of anything,  we can ask the Lord to show us.  Most parents do the best they can with the hand they were handed down. We also need to realize,  that if we do not honour our parents, our children will likely not honour us.

Father, once again this morning I make the prophetic declaration “As for me and my house,  we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). Help me to do my part Lord, in bringing this to pass by radical obedience,  and by my loving You with all my heart, mind, soul and strength,  and my neighbour as myself,  in Jesus Name Amen