It's Thursday and I woke up thirsty. Ha
Have you ever thought about this? How many bridges cross the Amazon River? Well did you guess?
Imagine a river that runs 4,000 miles long with absolutely no bridges. So much for "The bridge over troubled waters. "
You ask why? Because the width of the river may rise from 3 miles wide in the dry season & rise to 10 miles wide in the rainy season. This makes building a bridge impossible. Making boats & ferries the only reasonable mode of crossing.
Our meditation today is directed to Prov. 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."
There are several things we need to pay close attention to:
1) This is speaking of a pattern or
principle not a promise
2) There is a great difference
between a trainer & a teacher
3) The test of our success is how
we end life's course. Following
God in reverence & dedication or
turning to rebellion & selfishness
1) Parenting is primarily about
studying our children & then
giving guidance in the best way.
Some children require a firm hand
while others are best guided with
words of encouragement &
challenge
2) Think for a minute the difference
between training & teaching. A
teacher tells a student what to do.
While a trainer shows just how to
best do something. Encouraging
him in how & why to do something.
3) Children are personally
responsible for their choices,
regardless of their parents training.
As Solomon counsels us in Prov. 23:19 "Keep your heart on the right course"
The challenge is training & guarding our hearts. In my life there were many lessons that my dad passed onto me. Probably the most powerful one was that our heart is to be cared for. That's why he began each day in meditation of God's word. God helped him to daily tune up his heart. It is easy to get hard hearted, to God & then that pattern flows onto others in our lives.
If there is one major concern I have for our world it is this. Hard hearts for our eternal living. I see so much disregard for our after life. There are many things we do; or fail to do that are going to take affect on our future.
Disregard for the future usually results in selfish, harmful outcomes. There are many things we can get away with that will result in great loss.
The temptation is to get caught up in the present to the extent that the future is forgotten or ignored.
So Go With God and daily as you come to Him for your training He will enrich your thinking, and your doing. It will be so affected that your viewpoint will be adjusted to His view. Job's loss of all led & altered his life to an eternal outlook, that was never forgotten. From an earthly view to an other worldly view. He never forgot that need for reflection on the eternal. His first children were already there. Focus on God's viewpoint & it will eternally change you.