| By
now most everyone has heard of the little boy whose arm
was bitten off by a bull shark and whose uncle wrestled
the shark to shore. According to one article I read a
ranger shot the shark and pried its jaw open with a
police baton while a volunteer firefighter pulled the
arm out of the shark.
Truthfully,
none of us can predict exactly what we would do in the
same situation, but when I read about this incident I
immediately thought of my sister-in-law, Kelly. In my
minds eye I can see her wrestling a shark or any other
animal that dared harm a child. Years ago when a bumble
bee flew down my son's shirt she reached
down and grabbed it, letting it sting her but keeping it
from stinging my son. She's as fiercely protective of my
children as she is her own. Couple that with her "I
can" attitude and you have one powerful woman.
She's powerful in other ways too. She's a Christian with
a love for children that knows no bounds. She's the kind
of Sunday school teacher that all kids love and other
teachers look to for ideas.
What's
her motivation? It's the same thing that caused an uncle
to wrestle a shark.
It's the same thing that caused God to send His only son
to the cross. Read 1 Corinthians, chapter 13 to remind
yourself of the power of love. Then read John 3:16.
Mankind
didn't invent love…God did. It's up to us to pass it
on.
Praying
for our Children
Last
night I attended a gospel meeting at our church. The
theme of the meeting is "Building Strong Christian
Families." As I listened to the preacher speak
about things that make families stronger and things that
tear them apart I couldn't help but thinking that there
is no family immune to problems.
No
matter how hard we try to "Satan proof" our
homes, he finds ways to slip in. No matter how much we
want to protect our children from temptation, he finds
ways to reach them.
Now
that three of my five children are teenagers I find that
I didn't know nearly as much as I thought I did about
parenting. Yes, I knew about diapers, bottles and
pacifiers, but the teen years are a whole different
ballgame.
Today
teens are bombarded with messages that encourage them to
live life in the fast lane. Can the three or four hours
a week they spend in church compete with the glamour of
sin that the world feeds them on a daily basis? I think
most of us know the answer to that question. It takes a
huge amount of prayer and work to raise Christian
children, and sometimes even when we do our very best
things don't turn out the way we envisioned them.
So
what can we do? Trust in God to lead us and pray not
only for our own children, but also for those in our
churches, our communities, and our country. Prayer is a
powerful tool and one we sometimes fail to use. We
shouldn't be afraid or ashamed to ask for the prayers of
others. Not only can we help each other by praying for
each other's children, but we can also share the joys
and those sometimes-difficult moments of parenting.
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