Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Growing up, I always knew that I wanted children. I wanted this life of watching them grow up, getting to teach them, getting to raise them in the ways of the Lord, and then getting to prayerfully send them off to venture out into the world on their own. I always said to my best friend growing up, "I feel like God made me to be a dad," and I didn't realize until I got older that that probably was more true than I realized at the time.
See, having kids wasn't simply a selfish desire I had. This was something that God had woven into my soul to view just how precious and valuable children are. There's verses all throughout Scripture that talk to this, but one of my favorites comes from our Verse of the Day today.
It's Psalm chapter 127, verse 3. It says, "Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from Him."
A Gift and a Reward
Really think about that. Of all the wonderful things God gives us, He looks at children and He says, these are a gift, something to be cherished and taken care of. These are a reward, something that you're going to have to work in, but it's going to show so much beautiful fruit. It's a powerful thing to see children the way that the Lord sees children.
For me, this was just something that I couldn't let go of. Even when I met my wife, this was actually a tension point because she didn't want to have kids. Praise God that that changed, because we've been together for 13 years now and we have three wonderful and amazing children. With each one, as they've grown up, as I've seen their personalities develop, as I've gotten to spend time with them uniquely and individually and see how God's wired them, it really begins to show me the depth of what Solomon is getting at here, that children truly are a gift. They are something to be taken care of.
Deepening Our Relationship with God
Something that I didn't expect when I had kids was just how much it was going to deepen my relationship with God and make me appreciate the ways that He looks at me. Because the Bible tells us in places like 1 John chapter 3, verse 1 that we are children of God. It doesn't say "like children of God." It says that He has made us His own children.
As I sit down with my kids at the end of the day and just get to watch the excitement on their face as I hear them rambling about a bug that they found, like it was just the most incredible discovery in the world. As I sit with them at night, as they're afraid of the dark, I think about all the ways that God does these things for me, that God wants these moments of me just running to Him with excitement, and how He opens up His arms and He lifts me up. How I could be talking about the most random things in life, and God is sitting there listening, enjoying every second of it, that when life starts to feel overwhelming and I just go, God, I'm afraid, He's there, patiently listening, comforting me in the most quiet moments of my life.
It is so profound to know that we are children of God. As we look at our children, we should realize that all the love that God has for us should be poured out into our children's lives.
For Those Who Want Children but Can't Have Them
I want to speak, though, into a very real possibility for some out there—those who want kids but can't have them, those who have desire for family but are struggling to see it come to fruition. I want to share a story with you about some close friends of mine. I met these two in college and so I got to watch those awkward dances as they started to talk to each other. Then they started dating and they got engaged, and then they got married. Then we got to celebrate when they said that they wanted to start growing their family.
Then weeks turned into months and months turned into years and still no children. My heart grieved for them. But what the Lord did in their lives was truly amazing. He began to put on their hearts the desire for fostering. See, they had plans to become parents. Then God says, I want to give you that, but I'm going to do it in a much more powerful and incredible way, where you're going to touch the lives of more kids than you could ever imagine. In their most hurt, vulnerable moments, you get to show them My love as parents.
It's stories like this that just make me so encouraged at the way that God wants to use us to raise up the next generation. Whether you're praying for kids, whether you have kids, maybe you don't even want kids of your own, believe that God has a purpose for you. Looking at children the way that He looks at children as an opportunity to show them the grace and love of God, to lead them in His ways. Praise God that we get to celebrate this life as God's own children, whom He loves now and forever more.
