Rēad to Read …Again
Daily Reading: II Timothy 1-4
II Timothy 1:3
I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;
“Quit trying to be a good parent!” That was the title of the Sunday night message. Our pastor announced this message at the end of the Sunday morning service. I was all in! After all, I didn’t want to be a good parent and he was going to reinforce my laziness and worldliness. Being new to the faith, I was trying, but found it difficult to do all that a good Christian parent should do. Faithful to all the church services, daily devotions in my home, daily prayer time with the family, active in so many church ministries, and then this thing of spending time with each child… Who has time for all that?
So, I was interested in hearing the message titled “Quit trying to be a good parent!” But it didn’t take long to realize I’d been duped. The message was not about not being a good parent, but rather to be a faithful grand and great grandparent. Our pastor was preaching about the consistency, faithfulness, and Christian deportment that every parent needs and how it should continue once the children are out of the house. He told stories of shipwrecked families who failed in this area. It happens like this. Parents are all they should be with their children, but once the kids are gone, the parents drop their zealousness for the Lord, perhaps even drop out of church, and cease doing all that they did when the kids were small. He described how this caused confusion on behalf of the children. “Was it all just a show?” “Did you live that kind of life in church just to keep us in line?” These were the results of parents falling away once their kids were out of the house.
The motive is not to be a good parent, but to be a good, faithful, grand and great grandparent. That was the theme of the message. He nailed me to the wall. My wife and I decided that night at the altar to be consistent for the rest of our lives. It was a good decision for us.
Paul makes a few statements to Timothy about the good role models of a faithful Christian on future generations. He, Paul, writing from the jail cell waiting execution must have been thinking about the faithfulness of his forefathers as he mentions in II Timothy 1:3. He communicates that they served the Lord which influenced him to serve God. He may have been speaking about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and other Old Testament saints. Or he may have been referencing his more recent forefathers, we just do not know. But somewhere, someone, at some time influenced Saul to serve God, which he did with vigor both before and after his conversion on the road to Damascus. He tried to serve God according to the light he had and responded well when faced with the reality of Jesus Christ and His gospel.
Not only Paul. Timothy also had good role models of faith in his mother Eunice and grandmother Lois. Paul pointed this out, seeming to relay that the faith of parents, grand, and great grandparents influence the future generations. Yes, children cannot live on their parent’s faith, they must live out their own faith. But the power of influence that parents have cannot be denied. As my pastor once preached: “Quit trying to be a good parent and focus on being a faithful grand and great grandparent.” Thus being a good influence for Christ to all future generations of your family.
Dr. William T. Howe
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