What are you doing with your heritage?

Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

Psalm 127:3

The word heritage in this verse means “inheritance, or property”. Your children are God’s property, gifted to you for their time here on this earth. What are you doing with that gift? We would all say if we inherited some money from an estate, that we would want to be wise with the spending of that money. Not squandering it on wasteful living, or nonsense. Are we that wise in how we spend our time and energy with our children?

While thinking about this heritage, and how to make it a goodly one (Psalm 16:6), here are some verses to ponder:

And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination.

Jeremiah 2:7

The word abomination here means “morally disgusting”. The best thing we can do for our children is to raise them up to be morally sound. We can give our children the best food, clothing, and all the worldly goods they desire, but if we never pray for their heart to love God, we have done them a disservice. Raise them to be GOOD children. Kind. Loving. To worship God. But also to know WHY they are to be this way. Raising them to do these things because they fear your discipline is not what you want. We discipline them when they are little to show them there are consequences for disobedience to God later in life.

I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.

Jeremiah 12:7

If you do not teach your children to fear God, and live to please Him, you are thereby allowing Satan to have control over their soul. We have to pray every day that God would help us bring them up in the nurture, and admonition of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4) Your children’s choice to be saved and walk with the Lord is the most important decision they will ever make.

A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.

Proverbs 10:1

Nobody wants to look back, years down the road and think, I wish I had spent more time on the things that matter for eternity! Redeem the time you have now! Raise your heritage to be wise in the things of God.

He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly.

2 Chronicles 22:3

As a mother, I think this is possibly the saddest verse I have read concerning the relationship between a mother and her son. And it is very eye opening to me. What will be said about me one day? As a mother, have there been times I consented to my children doing wickedly? If I have ever allowed foolish behavior, and turned a deaf ear/blind eye to mischief, I’m afraid I have been my child’s counselor to do wickedly. Remember, a sinful life doesn’t start with the “big things”. It starts with folly, as the Bible calls it. Foolishness. Silliness, disrespect, sarcasm, and little white lies can all be a slippery slope to bigger ‘sins’.

We will never be perfect parents, but with God’s help we can raise our children to be good people. To be the salt and light in this dark and tasteless world we live in. Praying for you as we journey this road together. May your days raising little ones be full of joy, and may you see glimpses of them striving to serve God as they grow up and find their path in life.