What does it look like to raise my children with an eternal perspective? How do I even do that? Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27-30)
This is what I want my children to know, to feel, to believe, to experience; this eternal life that we have already been given. I want them to see it lived in me as I strive to reflect Jesus. However, I am only a piece of the body (1 Corinthians 12:14,27). I can never show them the fullness of Christ on my own. I am flawed, and if I am the only mold they have, they will reflect my flaws. Paul beautifully describes the temple that we are all being built into with Jesus Christ as our Cornerstone “in whom the entire building, tightly framed together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:20-22). This is the place I want my children to grow! I want them to grow and learn where the Lord is, where He can mold them and shape them into a dwelling place of God through His Spirit!
The world is fallen and is such a difficult place to raise godly children, but thank God, He has given us a better place! We have all heard the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Perhaps there is more truth in this than we have been trained to think. There are so many pressures as moms to get everything right, to be everything your child/children need, to hold it all together, to do it all alone and not ask for help. But, ladies, Jesus is the one who holds all things together (Colossians 1:17), and He is represented here on this earth as resting in a temple made up of many believers. How can we ever expect to fully represent Him with only ourselves? Paul continues to talk about the believers in Laodicea and says he wants their hearts to be “knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:2-3). We can’t give them true assurance and understanding of God until they see it through our love for one another (John 13:35). I have strengths that I want to pass on to my children, but I also see so many strengths in my children’s village that I would like to be passed on to them as well. I would love for them to have my faithfulness, my husband’s diligence in searching for the truth and righteousness, Katy’s loyalty and enthusiasm for God’s work, Sarah’s patience, Brittany’s kindness, Aunt Carrie’s thoughtfulness, Jerica’s zeal for learning more about God, Alex’s devotion to the Lord’s work, Josh’s and Stefanie’s passion and dedication to the body, and Kim’s and Jeff’s trust and hope in the Lord. There are so many other faithful people they are surrounded by who love them and lead them that I could not name them all. Even if I had all of these characteristics myself (God knows I don’t), how much greater will it impact them to see these qualities in so many familiar faces around them?
I have strengths that I want to pass on to my children, but I also see so many strengths in my children’s village that I would like to be passed on to them as well. Click To Tweet
The virtuous woman of Proverbs 31 is one of my favorite passages depicting a godly woman, a model for me and other women to strive for. Sometimes reading through, her example seems nearly impossible to reach, but embedded into the text, we see her village that helps her make everything possible. Clearly, she has her husband, but she also lives in community with her household (which was likely more than just her husband and children)—maidens, merchants, the poor and needy, and her children. She relied on and allowed others to help her provide for her family and in doing so, she provided for not only her family but other families as well, setting an example of and becoming a part of the great love Jesus would display as He humbled himself, even to death on the cross (Philippians 2:8).
Acknowledging Jesus’s village is not the entirety of raising my children with an eternal perspective, but it would be terribly hard for them to understand the Kingdom of Heaven if they can’t experience it now on earth through a local group of believers.
If you live in Starkville and don’t have a village with whom to raise your children in the Lord, please join us in His work, growing together, learning together, and listening for guidance from the Holy Spirit. “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, thought many, are one body, so it is with Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12). Come be one with us! Send us a message. We would love to connect with you.
More to come in Part 2.