Raising children, whether biological or adopted, is one of the most important and significant opportunities you will ever have to show others the love of god and share the good news of the kingdom. Don’t keep this light in the shadows. Please let it shine. - David Carrozza
When we lived in Kentucky our kids rode the bus to school every morning. At this time Grayson was in the head start program and so his bus would come later than his brothers. This gave us some one on one time just about every morning.
While we waited for the bus each day, we would play a game. Sometimes we would play “I spy,” sometimes we would count how many cars would go by, sometimes we would look for a certain color car, sometimes he would run around me and I’d try to tickle him, and then some mornings we would play a game we will simply call “standing on your shadow.”
During this game, he would try to stand on my shadow and I would move around and watch him jump back and forth trying to stay right where my shadow was. The game is silly and there really isn’t ever a winner, but it’s fun to watch him giggle and laugh trying to stand on my shadow.
One morning, as we were playing this little game, I began to think more about what this really means. You see, we play “standing on your shadow” in more ways than just in the mornings waiting for the bus. We play this game every minute of every day. How? Because every day he is watching and learning from me and learning the way I speak, the way I treat him, the way I treat his mother, and how I conduct myself as an individual.
The fact is our children (always) watch us. Even when we think they aren’t, they are. So, what kind of example are we leaving for our children? I’m reminded of the words of Deuteronomy:
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 6.4-9
This text reminds us that in everything we do, we are to set the example for our children.
This is one reason why Sacred Selections is so important. It provides children, who may be in a hopeless situation, to have hope. It gives children who may have no spiritual influence, to have the influence of Godly parents. It gives us an opportunity to evangelize to children within our own home.
Before we adopted our youngest, we met with both the birth father and mother and one thing he stressed to us was that he was glad to see his daughter go to a Christian home
Hopefully and prayerfully, our daughter will one day be added to the Lord’s church as 62 other souls have been added to the body of Christ because of Sacred Selections.
So, my question is this. What “shadow” are your children standing in? What example are we setting for our children? Is it portraying the life of Christ, or is it portraying the life of worldliness and sin?
Fathers, remember to “bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). Remember to set the right example and remember Matthew 5:13-16 especially applies when it comes to the home.
You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 5:13-16
– Aric Russell
