Dear Brothers and Sisters:
An ancient city was besieged and forced to surrender. In the city were two brothers who had satisfied the conquering general, and received permission to leave the city before it was set on fire. They were further allowed to take as much of their property as each could carry. The two youths appeared at the gates of the city, one carrying their father, and the other their mother.
Tomorrow will be Mother’s Day and I have been thinking about the awesome importance of parenting children that both mothers and fathers have before them. At a time when the children are around us more than they would normally be during the month of May, I thought that we would do well to consider a few important thoughts on this vital subject.
"From the time that, at my mother's feet, or on my father's knee, I first learned to lisp verses from the sacred writings, they have been my daily study and vigilant compensation. If there be any thing in my style or thoughts to be commended, the credit is due to my kind parents for instilling into my mind an early love of the Scriptures."
—Daniel Webster
Six hundred teenagers we found in New England's prisons gave these startling facts as to why they were there: Six out of ten had fathers who drank to excess. Many had mothers in the same condition. Three out of four were permitted by parents to come and go as they pleased. No parental oversight. Seven out of ten had homes where no group or family activities were enjoyed. And for all of them, no family altar.
From the Pen of Ellen White:
“Parents may well inquire: "Who is sufficient for these things?" God alone is their sufficiency, and if they leave Him out of the question, seeking not His aid and counsel, hopeless indeed is their task. But by prayer, by study of the Bible, and by earnest zeal on their part they may succeed nobly in this important duty and be repaid a hundredfold for all their time and care.” {Testimonies for the Church, 4:198}
“In your work for your children take hold of the mighty power of God. Commit your children to the Lord in prayer. Work earnestly and untiringly for them. God will hear your prayers and will draw them to Himself. Then, at the last great day, you can bring them to God, saying, "Here am I, and the children whom Thou hast given me."” {Adventist Home, 536}
“The work of parents is an important, a solemn, work; the duties devolving upon them are great. But if they will study the Word of God carefully, they will find in it full instructions and many precious promises made to them on condition that they perform their work faithfully and well.” {Child Guidance, 65}
“When you take up your duties as a parent in the strength of God, with a firm determination never to relax your efforts nor to leave your post of duty in striving to make your children what God would have them, then God looks down upon you with approbation. He knows that you are doing the best you can, and He will increase your power. He will Himself do the part of the work that the mother or father cannot do; He will work with the wise, patient, well-directed efforts of the God-fearing mother. Parents, God does not propose to do the work that He has left for you to do in your home. You must not give up to indolence and be slothful servants, if you would have your children saved from the perils that surround them in the world.” {Adventist Home, 207}
“In whatever else we may fail, let us be thorough in the work for our children. If they go forth from the home training, pure and virtuous, if they fill the least and lowest place in God's great plan of good for the world, our life work can never be called a failure.” {Fundamentals of Christian Education, 161}
“The work of wise parents will never be appreciated by the world, but when the judgment shall sit and the books shall be opened, their work will appear as God views it and will be rewarded before men and angels. It will be seen that one child who has been brought up in a faithful way has been a light in the world. It cost tears and anxiety and sleepless nights to oversee the character building of this child, but the work was done wisely, and the parents hear the "Well done" of the Master.” {Adventist Home, 536}
From God’s Word:
But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; (Psalms 103:17 KJV)
Mas la misericordia de Jehová desde el siglo y hasta el siglo sobre los que le temen, Y su justicia sobre los hijos de los hijos; (Salmos 103:17 SRV)
And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son! (2 Samuel 18:33 KJV)
Entonces el rey se turbó, y subióse á la sala de la puerta, y lloró; y yendo, decía así: ¡Hijo mío Absalom, hijo mío, hijo mío Absalom! ¡Quién me diera que muriera yo en lugar de ti, Absalom, hijo mío, hijo mío! (2 Samuel 18:33 SRV)
Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons; Specially the day that thou stoodest before the LORD thy God in Horeb, when the LORD said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children. (Deuteronomy 4:9-10 KJV)
Por tanto, guárdate, y guarda tu alma con diligencia, que no te olvides de las cosas que tus ojos han visto, ni se aparten de tu corazón todos los días de tu vida: y enseñarlas has á tus hijos, y á los hijos de tus hijos; El día que estuviste delante de Jehová tu Dios en Horeb, cuando Jehová me dijo: Júntame el pueblo, para que yo les haga oir mis palabras, las cuales aprenderán, para temerme todos los días que vivieren sobre la tierra: y las enseñarán á sus hijos; (Deuteronomio 4:9-10 SRV)
Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth. (Deuteronomy 11:18-21 KJV)
Por tanto, pondréis estas mis palabras en vuestro corazón y en vuestra alma, y las ataréis por señal en vuestra mano, y serán por frontales entre vuestros ojos. Y las enseñaréis á vuestros hijos, hablando de ellas, ora sentado en tu casa, ó andando por el camino, cuando te acuestes, y cuando te levantes: Y las escribirás en los postes de tu casa, y en tus portadas: Para que sean aumentados vuestros días, y los días de vuestros hijos, sobre la tierra que juró Jehová á vuestros padres que les había de dar, como los días de los cielos sobre la tierra. (Deuteronomio 11:18-21 SRV)
For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: (Psalms 78:5-6 KJV)
El estableció testimonio en Jacob, Y pusó ley en Israel; La cual mandó á nuestros padres Que la notificasen á sus hijos; Para que lo sepa la generación venidera, y los hijos que nacerán; Y los que se levantarán, lo cuenten á sus hijos; (Salmos 78:5-6 SRV)
There’s no question that we love our children. Louis Pasteur's work on viruses in human beings was interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War which began in 1870. His only son was in the army. Earlier he had suffered the personal tragedy of losing three daughters to sicknesses. But now his son was gone to the front and weeks had passed without news. Pasteur left his laboratory and set out to find him.
The war for France was a total disaster. As Pasteur made his way north he found the roads full of the defeated soldiers and stragglers; "the retreat from Moscow could not have been worse," he said. When he finally located his son's unit, he became even more disheartened and desperate; an officer told him that of the original twelve hundred men of the battalion fewer than three hundred had survived.
Louis Untermeyer in Makers of the Modern World told of the next move by the shattered father in search of his son. "Pasteur went on through a nightmare of winding roads choked with dead horses and men suffering from freezing cold and gangrenous wounds. Finally, Pasteur recognized a gaunt soldier, weak with hunger, wrapped to his eyes in a greatcoat, and father and son, too moved for words, embraced in silence."
What we have passed on to our children will ever be appreciated. When France voted to decide upon the greatest man that country had ever produced, the rest of the world was pleasantly surprised when Louis Pasteur received that high honor. But what did Pasteur himself think of it? When the citizens of his native village sought to honor him by placing a memorial tablet on the little house in which he was born, Pasteur, being present, was called on to make a speech. He began by expressing his gratitude to the hometown people; then, overcome by emotion, he exclaimed, "Oh! My father, my mother! Dear departed ones, who lived so humbly in this little house, it is to you that I owe everything!"
Let me tell you that during these times of separation, dear brothers and sisters, you are greatly missed. May the Lord so direct that we can meet again soon and safely.
Pastor Richard Parent