I hope that your answer to this question is a resounding “Yes!” However, the troubling reality is that many in our nation would not only give a different answer but would also offer up a host of pathetic reasons why children are a bane and not a blessing. With such insane sentiments abounding we would do well to be reminded of the many ways children are indeed blessings from God. In this post I have no intention of providing an exhaustive list. Rather, I merely want to offer up 5 reasons why children have been and will always be blessings.
Children are blessings:
1. Because life is precious.
This is a simple truth but one I believe many Christians have expressed verbally yet denied practically. So many say they believe life is precious, yet they want very little to do with any life that makes their life uncomfortable. We need, now more than ever, to affirm by our actions not just our words that all lives, even the youngest of lives, are precious -- precious enough to trade our comfort and quiet for diapers and colicky cries.
2. Because they present the greatest opportunity to fulfill the Great Commission.
Where is your greatest opportunity to make disciples? It is not first and foremost in your neighborhood or in your community. It is not first and foremost in a village tucked away in the Ukraine. It is under your very own roof. Do you realize the blessing this is? For better or worse your greatest sphere of influence is your home. Make it count for the Kingdom. Love your children deeply, teach them God’s precious word, model humility, spend more time crying out to God for the souls of your children than whining about your 401k, and let them know every chance you get that they are desperate sinners in need of a Savior.
3. Because they are professional idol-demolishers.
The statement I am about to make may be a stretch but I doubt it. You probably have a lot of things around your house that are idols you didn’t even know you had. Am I wrong? Junior will vindicate my proposition the minute he slams into your 52 inch flatscreen and smashes it up. What do you have around your house that is so precious to you that you just can’t do with out it? Your child will help you find out. Now, you can either lash out in anger or stop and appreciate an unsolicited reality-check. I am not advocating allowing your children to be destructors but you miss a redemptive moment when you yell at them for jacking up one of your things instead of repenting for clinging more to junk than Jesus.
4. Because they drive us to prayer.
Nothing can bring a man or woman to their knees in prayer like a child in need. I have seen people who ordinarily want nothing to do with God all of the sudden become self-professed prayer warriors. Unfortunately, many of these “prayers” are pleas for some sort of physical deliverance. But what our children help to show us is that their real need is not Cipro but Christ. Do we pray for their eternity or simply focus on today’s emergency room visit? Our children drive us to prayer and we ought not squander such an opportunity. May God help us to passionately pray for their souls not just their bodies.
5. Because they comfort us in our old age.
Before I comment on this last reason I want to state an important preliminary fact -- no matter what their age the only person anyone ever needs is Jesus. Having said that, it never hurts to have adult children who comfort, encourage, visit, and speak truth in one’s twilight years. Though I have yet to experience these benefits first hand, I have witnessed the joy of old dads and the loneliness of childless old men. Contrary to much selfish rhetoric abounding today, children truly are a blessing. Not only as five year olds, but also as fifty year olds.
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