Silas
Beloved of All
Thank you for opening your heart in this way and for your desire to see Christ dwelling richly in your home. Your longing for better face to face time, for grace and wisdom as a father, and for the love of Christ to overflow in your family is good and right before the Lord. Scripture says we should speak face to face so that our joy may be full, and that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith so that we are rooted and grounded in love and able to know more of His love that goes beyond knowledge.
God has given marriage as a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman, and He has given children as a trust from Him. Within that design He calls husbands and wives to render kindness and faithfulness to one another and not to withhold themselves from one another, and He calls parents to bring children up in the training and instruction of the Lord. That training is a steady, systematic work, like catechizing a child line upon line. It is important to ask what goal you have in that training. If the goal is only outward success, a child may become successful and yet be without faith. The goal must be that he would know the Lord and walk in His way.
The Hebrew thought behind that proverb also reminds us to train a child according to his own way, recognizing that each child is different in temperament and personality. One form of correction that helps one child may not help another, so wisdom asks you to learn your son and teach him patiently. As you teach a child to walk you expect stumbles and falls, and you do your best to keep him from falling while showing great patience when he does. In the same way, bring him up with patient instruction, praying for him, speaking the Word to him morning and evening, and encouraging him very early to move beyond memorized words to speak his own heart to God. Jesus took a little child and set him in the midst of His disciples and said we must be converted and become like little children to enter the kingdom, and that whoever receives one such child in His name receives Him. He loves the simple trust of a child, and it is a serious thing to harm that trust. Your faithful, gentle example, your humility and your willingness to serve rather than to demand your own way, is part of how that little one learns to honor both father and mother and to not depart from the way of the Lord when he is older.
Your prayer for your wife is understood. It is right to pray that the Holy Spirit would convict of sin and righteousness and judgment, and that she would come to salvation through Jesus Christ alone, for there is no other name by which we are saved. It is right to pray that she would do you good and not evil all the days of her life, and that your communication would be marked by truth without lies, by grace without wickedness or fear, and by faithfulness within the marriage covenant. Scripture teaches that to avoid sexual sin, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband, and that purity is guarded not by bargaining with God to block consequences but by a changed heart that turns from sin. Joseph is an example for us here. When he was enticed to sin he did not linger, he fled and left even his garment behind. God calls us to that same decisiveness to flee temptation and to keep the marriage bed pure.
You also asked for protection for your son and for your household. As a child of God you have this promise, that no weapon formed against you shall prosper, for that is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. The Lord watches over His own. Even when evil is planned against you, God is able to reverse it and turn it for good, as He did for Joseph. He is sovereign over all circumstances. He moved an entire empire to require a census so that Mary and Joseph would be in Bethlehem to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, and He safely brought that child into the world and watched over Him. He is able to keep your son by His power through faith, to fill him with His Spirit, and to guard him so that the evil one does not have a hold on him. There are more with those who belong to God than with those who are against them, for Christ who is in you is greater than he who is in the world, and the help of those who trust Him comes from the Maker of heaven and earth who commands His angels concerning His children. Pray that your son would be saved early, that he would know the Scriptures which are able to make him wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
In your weakness, remember that His strength is made perfect there. When you are weak, then Christ is strong in you, and His power rests upon those who gladly trust Him rather than their own strength. Continue to pray, even if only two or three agree together, for the Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few. Keep praying in Jesus' name, trusting that what you ask according to His will He hears, and that He will answer for His glory and for the good of your family as you seek to serve Him alone and to walk in His ways.
God has given marriage as a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman, and He has given children as a trust from Him. Within that design He calls husbands and wives to render kindness and faithfulness to one another and not to withhold themselves from one another, and He calls parents to bring children up in the training and instruction of the Lord. That training is a steady, systematic work, like catechizing a child line upon line. It is important to ask what goal you have in that training. If the goal is only outward success, a child may become successful and yet be without faith. The goal must be that he would know the Lord and walk in His way.
The Hebrew thought behind that proverb also reminds us to train a child according to his own way, recognizing that each child is different in temperament and personality. One form of correction that helps one child may not help another, so wisdom asks you to learn your son and teach him patiently. As you teach a child to walk you expect stumbles and falls, and you do your best to keep him from falling while showing great patience when he does. In the same way, bring him up with patient instruction, praying for him, speaking the Word to him morning and evening, and encouraging him very early to move beyond memorized words to speak his own heart to God. Jesus took a little child and set him in the midst of His disciples and said we must be converted and become like little children to enter the kingdom, and that whoever receives one such child in His name receives Him. He loves the simple trust of a child, and it is a serious thing to harm that trust. Your faithful, gentle example, your humility and your willingness to serve rather than to demand your own way, is part of how that little one learns to honor both father and mother and to not depart from the way of the Lord when he is older.
Your prayer for your wife is understood. It is right to pray that the Holy Spirit would convict of sin and righteousness and judgment, and that she would come to salvation through Jesus Christ alone, for there is no other name by which we are saved. It is right to pray that she would do you good and not evil all the days of her life, and that your communication would be marked by truth without lies, by grace without wickedness or fear, and by faithfulness within the marriage covenant. Scripture teaches that to avoid sexual sin, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband, and that purity is guarded not by bargaining with God to block consequences but by a changed heart that turns from sin. Joseph is an example for us here. When he was enticed to sin he did not linger, he fled and left even his garment behind. God calls us to that same decisiveness to flee temptation and to keep the marriage bed pure.
You also asked for protection for your son and for your household. As a child of God you have this promise, that no weapon formed against you shall prosper, for that is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. The Lord watches over His own. Even when evil is planned against you, God is able to reverse it and turn it for good, as He did for Joseph. He is sovereign over all circumstances. He moved an entire empire to require a census so that Mary and Joseph would be in Bethlehem to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, and He safely brought that child into the world and watched over Him. He is able to keep your son by His power through faith, to fill him with His Spirit, and to guard him so that the evil one does not have a hold on him. There are more with those who belong to God than with those who are against them, for Christ who is in you is greater than he who is in the world, and the help of those who trust Him comes from the Maker of heaven and earth who commands His angels concerning His children. Pray that your son would be saved early, that he would know the Scriptures which are able to make him wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
In your weakness, remember that His strength is made perfect there. When you are weak, then Christ is strong in you, and His power rests upon those who gladly trust Him rather than their own strength. Continue to pray, even if only two or three agree together, for the Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few. Keep praying in Jesus' name, trusting that what you ask according to His will He hears, and that He will answer for His glory and for the good of your family as you seek to serve Him alone and to walk in His ways.
