"Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the very heart of your house. Your children like olive plants all around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord." Psalm 128.3-4
Olive trees are amazing. They can live for a thousand years and provide nutritious food for tens of thousands of people. But they are hard to get growing. The seeds have to be gently crushed, broken open, soaked, and held at certain temperatures for months even before you get a seedling. Then they have to be carefully irrigated, fertilized and maintained.
Children are a lot like that. Last Thursday, I asked our children in our chapel service how they can be a burden to their parents? Their first response was when they disobey and irritate them. I also pointed out the burden of many diapers, baths, clothes, teaching, protecting and so on! I then asked how children can be a blessing? One boy gave the first and best answer: They can love you. A car is nice, but it will never love you. Children are indeed a blessing when they love their parents!
However, this blessing of children, marriage and family is often disrupted today. Children, marriage and family call for a lot of self-sacrifice. But the world calls for self-indulgence and self-service. God knows that, and that is why He addressed this problem with another Child - His Son. Jesus came to be the perfect child and man, and then He died to take our place and to give us the forgiveness. In Jesus, we are broken free from the world's view: "life is what I want" and are brought into God's kingdom where life is what He wants.
Read more here.
