1 Thessalonians, Ch. 2, Father and Mother

This is 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. There are a few different reasons for going over this. It actually is just packed with all kinds of good things. Here's the context. Here's Paul. He writes to the church at Thessalonica. It's a very young church. The main problem that they're dealing with after he's been there is that Somebody has come to him and said, the Lord's already come. And there... We're left. Which, by the way, is still a doctrine that's being taught today. It's called Preterism. It's taught by, for example, the Bible Answer Man. Yeah! Hank Hanegraaff? Really? Did you see that? That's crazy. Now, here is the... Here's the deal. So Paul is addressing, in the bigger picture, he's addressing that issue.

But as he comes here in chapter 2, he describes himself and those who are with him and how they spiritually parented the believers there. And he compares himself to a mother and compares himself to a father. So here are several of the things that you get. One is you get here are some characteristics and the role of a Christian mother and father.

That's described. Another thing is what are we looking for in the spiritual maturity of our kids. So there's another thing that gets described. There's another thing. He uses several words that are part of Christian counseling. in this passage. This is in this pact with all sorts of truths.

What I've done is I've just taken the text from the New American Standard, and I've color-coded it, and then put some side notes. And the color code is up at the first page in the upper right. The green text means it's not directly applicable to parenting, but the specifics of Paul's day in this situation. The red text is negative statements. It describes how Paul did not come in character. It was not like this. The blue text is specific to Paul's comparison of his behavior to that of a father or mother.

So you get a number of pieces of valuable information out of this on several different levels. Then on the side what I've done is to put in certain insights from words that might be helpful. It's here where you see a lot of the words that are Christian counseling words. Let's step our way through it. For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. So there's the negative. It wasn't in vain. That's also saying, as Christian parents, the parenting that we do is not in vain either.

But after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, so that's not directly applicable, hopefully, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God, which is another thing you notice with the green line there. The point here is that the word gospel is used in the New Testament in two ways.

It's used as simply, what does it take to be saved? And then it's also used, and this is the context here, of the larger set of things that you need to grow on. That's a part of it. You're giving your kids what they need to grow on spiritually. Not just how it's got to be saved. Certainly that's within it. But beyond that, you're wanting your kids to grow spiritually and you're giving them what they need, the whole gospel of God. Amid much opposition, and that's one other point here, is there will be opposition in your parenting. Not only from the kids, but what are some other quarters that you might get opposition from?

Grandparents? Yes. You might get opposition from grandparents or who else? Parents with each other maybe? That is a possibility, although at least among Christian parents that is something to work on, certainly. Where else might you see it? Just other friends, like your peer group? Yes. You might have peer group influences. Where else? The government? Government, schools, things like that.

A lot of times they can be co-operators but there can also be issues. pop psychological TV shows on. People don't come to church. They are not growing spiritually. Many people are not even believers. So where do they go to learn how to do things? Well, they turn to Dr. Phil or Oprah or whoever else has a TV show. Oh, Rachel Ray Cooks, I'll ask her how to be a parent. She doesn't have any kids. She doesn't want any. Oh, she doesn't? No. There is something else.

This word is agoni, which is part of a word family used to describe athletic competition. So the aspect that parallels with parenting is that this may involve some real effort. Another, for our exhortation. Now this is paraklesis. This is part of the family of words. Parakletos is translated in the gospels as the Holy Spirit, the one who comes alongside, the comforter. And it's also part of the counseling family of words. Exhortation, comfort, encouragement. So here's the negative part again. Does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit. This is a key piece of guidance for Christian parenting. It does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit.

What's the difference between those two? Why doesn't he just list one of them? Why the three? They're all different. He says error. What's the opposite of error? Truth. And where do we know the truth is? From the Lord. Yeah, from the Lord and from His Word, right?

How about impurity? The opposite of that is purity, where we're presenting it. This would be somehow mixed up. Yeah, mixed. Moral distortions. Yeah, might have some truth, but mixed up with other things. And by way of deceit. That's the opposite. It kind of compares with error. We're not trying to show them one thing and say another. This is really the way it is. It's straightforward. But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak.

Again, here's the negative. Not as pleasing men. We're not there to please other people. We're not even there to please our kids. We're there to please the Lord. But God who examines our hearts, But we are before God as we parent. That's ultimately what the people next door think. That's not the big issue. The big issue is what does God think. And here's another negative statement. We never came with flattering speech, as you know. We're not just trying to butter the kids up. Doesn't mean we won't say positive things, but we're not just there trying to lay out false goodness.

Nor with a pretext for greed. We're not here just, it's hard to imagine, but I imagine there are some people who are just, what's the money end of it? God is witness. Again, it's before the Lord. Nor did we seek glory from men. We weren't looking to other people, or from you, or from others. We're before God. Now here's the part that's specifically about their apostolic activity. Even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority.

But we prove to be gentle among you as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. That word gentle. Moderate, patient. Where else do you see that word popping up in scripture? Here is this gentleness that's to be there. Now, we had a question earlier about corporal punishment and things like that. There is a basic gentleness that is there, not a severity. It doesn't mean that there isn't time to draw a line and to make it clear that that line is there. But the basic approach is one of gentleness, not of severity, not one of intensity.

As a nursing mother, tenderly cares for her own children. This talks about the care, the providing for the needs. And as parents, that is a role we have spiritually as well. So we see it as a description of the mother, but also As in spiritual parenting, when you are beyond the stage of nursing kids, there is still spiritually speaking a need to look at that as a nursing mother tenderly cares for the children, nurturing, providing them in their very young stages for their spiritual growth.

Having so fond an affection for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives. This is what parents are doing. Christian parents are providing spiritual input to their children and they're investing their lives. They're investing their very lives because you have become very dear to us. It's interesting as he speaks to them, the tenderness, the intimacy, the gentleness that he conveys as he does that. And this doesn't stop when your children grow up.

You still want everything for your kids. You want them to be well, to be healthy, physically healthy, spiritually healthy. And you want all of their needs to be met. And if there's any way you can do that that's appropriate, you still want to do that.

Sometimes you have to step back because it's not appropriate. He said, you recall, brethren, our labor and our hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you. Sure, it is a negative statement, but I say negative just because he says not, but it's not negative. It's really positive. But essentially, the parents are investing in the kids. Parents are the ones giving towards the kids.

How about this not to be a burden to any of them? Does that mean we don't let our kids do anything? We just do all the stuff for them? What does he mean by that? I don't know if this is right, but I think, and I'm not good at this, but by doing everything for them, you're creating a burden in them that they're not able to think for themselves and do for themselves as they get older. One way to look at it is, he says not being a burden to any of you, but on the other hand he was also giving to them. It is possible for parents to get upside down with their kids where parents are ending up not just trying to have the kids grow and take on more responsibility, but depending on the kids in ways that are not appropriate. And that can happen.

He says, we proclaim to you the gospel of God. As I mentioned before, this isn't just how do I say it, it's what's the larger truth that I need to grow. You are witnesses and so is God how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behave toward you believers. How's that for a description of parenting? Just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring. Here are some Christian counseling words again.

Off to the side you see exhorting as parakaleo, related to the word up above, paraklesis. Coming alongside. Para means alongside. Kaleo means call. So calling alongside or called alongside. And he calls that here exhortation. This encouraging. It's paramufeomai, and so it's coming alongside you to encourage, alongside encouraging. It's interesting that parakaleo is used for comforter. It's also used for exhortation or conviction. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sinning and also comforts us.

It's quite an interesting dichotomy. And that's the thing. Essentially, these are counseling words. They are words that fit biblical counseling. Notice there are several words that come together. It is also the role of the parent. The parent is coming alongside, looking for words and actions that are for the betterment of the person they are coming alongside with. That is what you are doing with the kids.

You are looking for words and actions in their lives. that are for their betterment. And so look at this, we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring, here's this martyreo, this is to bear witness or to testify about what is true. The verb form of the noun translated witnesses in verse 10. So these related words And Dan, look what, each one of you as a father with his own children. So what does that say that a father has a role in doing in the family? He needs to be one who comes alongside and look at, let's think exhorting, encouraging, and imploring.

What are the differences between those words? What is exhorting? Is it to give direction? That's what I always thought. You're calling to give someone a direction. And it might have a negative aspect. Not that, but this way. So it's direction. You are giving your kids direction in life at the stages that they're at. How about the encouragement? What's the opposite of being encouraged? Discouraged. So if your kids are in a place where they are discouraged, the father has a role of encouraging.

The father has a role of encouraging the children. So this is real interesting to think about. The father has a place of giving direction to his children. He has a place of encouraging his children. That's important. A lot of fathers can forget that. Because the exhortation by itself can kind of come off where the dad doesn't grab me. Because the encouragement needs to be there as well. The next thing, imploring, how is that different? Look at the definition that's testifying to what's true. See that? It's not saying, just because I said so.

That's right. In other words, what you're doing is you're saying, here's the direction, and I want to encourage you. I want you to be encouraged as you head in that direction, and here's the map. Here's your frame of reference. This is what's true. This is the reality that you're in. So the Father is helping to tell the children, here is where you are. Here is what is true. These are the spiritual facts.

He is there to encourage and to positively motivate the children and to give them direction, which may have both a negative and a positive aspect, but that doesn't come without the encouragement aspect. That's probably the missing key a lot is the encouragement. Yes, and that's where we'll get into Ephesians 6 where the exhortation is the flip side of that, don't exasperate your children. And we'll see that's the opposite of the encouragement.

So scripture fits together. Here's the outcome. So that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. Isn't that what you're aiming for, for the kids? Everything that you're doing is so in the end you're going to walk worthy. When my boys were younger teens, I sat down with each one of them and I said, look, you're going through your teen years and I'll just tell you classically those are tough years.

But I want to tell you now before they start, or as they're just beginning, I want to tell you now that you're going to get through them. You're going to be okay. We're going to be okay. We'll get there. Don't worry about it. But this is where we're headed.

I want you to grow up. And we're doing this so that you can grow up. We're saying bye-bye in whatever context that happens. that you're walking out there ready to take on whatever the world's got. And it doesn't mean that we're saying, bye, never to see you again. And certainly we'll be around for counsel. But our idea is that we've got about the next five, six years. We're here to grow young.

And so whether we're doing the exhorting or whether we're doing the encouraging, imploring, all those things, that's where we're headed. And we want you to grow up to be men of God. That's where this is going. So that. My boys remember this. Next page.

For this reason, the reason you just gave, we also constantly thank God that when you received By the way, this is very interesting. Received and heard and learned, as I look throughout the New Testament epistles, is almost always in the active voice. It's not a, you sat down and passively received. But you actively received. So this is the other thing you're looking for in the kids. You want them to not just sit there and, well, mom and dad feeds them this stuff. But you want them to have a heart that grabs it. A heart that takes it in actively. Receive what? The Word of God. God's inspired Word. Which you heard from us. You accepted it. Ah! You accepted it. That's key. Not as the Word of men, but for what it really is, the Word of God.

Which also performs its work in you who believe. Guess what? It's not there to just stay in your gray matter. God's going to pull it off because it's His Word. But for what it is, the Word of God, which also performs its work in you, why? You believe. You believe it. Not just because you pack it in your head, I've got to memorize it. Does it do anything? Nah. Well yeah, it does because you believe it. For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God. This imitators is not just an outward mimicking. By the way, it's mimitus. We get our word mimicking. But it's not just an acting job. It's looking in. Do you see what it looks like when Paul's depending on the Lord? Do you see the Lord's character in him?

That's what he means by imitators. churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, but you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles, so that they may be saved. With the result, they will always fill up the measure of their sins, but wrath has come upon them to the utmost." That passage is obviously directly applicable to Paul's day. I will make one application to Christian parenting.

At one point, this again also was early teens, I remember my parents sat me down and said, you know there sometimes will come a time when you just simply have to stand on what you know is true. Everybody else may be against it. But just figure you know what's true and that's what's true and you're going to stand there. It's good to get that in your mind. It's not that you're out there constantly battling and fighting everybody. But there comes a time to simply stand on what's true and stick to it and to let them know ahead of time. Because here he is describing this thing and he compares it to a mother and father and all the time he's also describing the difficulties and the opposition and all those things. So a valuable thing to have.

Verse 17, But we, brethren, having been taken away from you for a short while, in person, not in spirit, were all the more eager with great desire to see your face, And this is the thing too, as you get older, of course, Nancy and I are at this stage now.

All three of our kids are married and two of the three sets of household have kids of their own. I've got four grandkids and one later on this month. That there is that there. We love to see them. We realize it's their household. We've handed off But we need to hand off to them. And it's their household, and we recognize that. We still love to see them.

For we wanted to come to you, I Paul, more than once, and yet Satan hindered us. For who is our hope, or joy, or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus, that has come? And that's where you want your kids. You want them there. It is coming. You are our glory and our joy. You want Him to be there.

There are some other passages we're going to be looking at. Ephesians 6, 1-4 and Colossians 3, 20-21. I've got some notes on them. They won't be going into detail here, other than just I'll point out some words quickly. Children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and your mother. which is the first commandment with a promise, so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long in the earth. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger. This is Parogito, as Agnes' aspiration and resentment, which is the opposite of the exhortation and encouragement and imploring founded in the truth. But, Allah. Strong contrast. And then discipline. Paedia. Educated discipline. Correction. Focusing upon action. One of the things that is going to be key to this... Excuse me, there's a particular word I'm looking for here. One of the keys here is going to be... Oh, here it is. Instruction. It's right there at the bottom.

Nufesia. What we're wanting to do is not to just make the kids behave certain outward behaviors. But this word for instruction is nufesia. It means to place in the mind. So that's what we're trying to do. We don't want to just get this and that outward behavior. It's not just behavior modification. We're looking to place in their mind the understanding and the principles and the heart for the Lord. That's our goal. That's our direction.

One thing that's been really neat for us is when our kids come back and say, I never understood why Dad would say blah, blah, blah. Now I get it. And as adults, they'll begin to grasp, oh, that's why Dad said that. And we're very blessed that all three of our kids are walking with the Lord and chose spouses who walk with the Lord.

Because sometimes that doesn't happen. And it's the discipline instruction of the Lord. It's the discipline instruction that the Lord provides and approves. It comes from His life. It's not just, here's the rules. You abide by them or I'll whack you. But this is from the Lord's person. This is from His heart. This is the Lord Himself. That's where it's coming from.

Anyway, we'll get into that in more detail, but I just wanted to Kind of make a quick comparison to some of the things we saw above there. Any thoughts? Puzzlings? I think for me it seemed very challenging to teach your kids the word of God and get them to that point where they need to be. Yeah. It's just difficult, I think. Yeah, yeah. It's awesome. Randy sits down with Abby, and they have a Bible study. Oh, cute.

And he teaches her, and she's beginning to grasp some of the things. At four, she doesn't have a depth of understanding that an adult would have, but she's becoming familiar with things and beginning to grasp some of it. Holly's a little young yet for that. She's not quite two and a half, but Brennan gets it. He gets it at home and at church.

It's neat to see that happen. They understand more than you give them credit for sometimes. I'll be amazed at my boys sometimes. They'll be like, wow, he gets it better than I do. He's learned it since he was little, and he has the simplicity of a child. I have all the baggage from things I learned growing up that now maybe I've learned or not exactly what the Bible taught or whatever, and it's hard to get rid of that baggage. But kids, it's kind of like a clean slate, sort of, even though they have their sin nature. But I think they understand. And I think a lot of times as adults we overthink things instead of just taking it as a child would you know, keeping it simple.

But it is challenging. And I always find like I want to say it the right way. I always feel this because I have so much baggage from before that I want to make sure I'm not passing the wrong impression on or maybe just slightly off tangent. That's kind of tough too. Just pray that the Lord will give you the right words and opportunities. It is challenging. Sometimes you wonder how you're ever going to survive the day.

While it's challenging, it's also something in which not only is it our place to teach our kids a lot of things, but in which we learn a lot. It's also a prime opportunity to depend upon the Lord because we were not intended to pull it off on our own. This isn't a Christian whose sin nature tries really hard. So this is the Lord's doing. It's His empowerment.

As Peter puts it, He's given us the divine empowerment for everything related to life and godliness. What do you think about I think some people can really shelter their children from the world, and I think all these negative statements are about what, I mean, today you could say pop culture. Right. People let it babysit their children and influence them. It's very influential. Is there a balance?

Or do you use these negative things that they might pick up and use those as teaching opportunities? One thing is you notice the negative in describing what Paul and his associates didn't do. So it's a guide to parenting, if you will, from that standpoint. Ultimately, what are you looking for? Just as Paul says, we were there and we're out there now.

You are there as a parent to prepare them for the time when It's appropriate that you're not there. Why? Because there, as I told my boys, there will be a time when you're an adult and we're getting you ready for that and you're going to go out the door because that will be the right time, but we want you to be ready for that.

You will prepare them for things that are coming if we constantly shelter them then they never have the opportunity to test out what they've learned. So that's the one extreme. If on the other hand we just kind of let the door open and wolves come and go as they please, then we aren't really giving them guidance and there's really no preparation. They need to be prepared for everything they encounter. And what level of risk do you allow them to take? a level of risk that they'll survive. In other words, if you shelter them, you say, well, they won't have any risk. And they'll reach age 18 and 21 and they'll never have taken any risks. that you haven't done your job. They haven't developed an immune system.

It was one thing that we used to do with the kids. If they would have a friend over whose behavior was not up to our standard, at some point, either during the visit or after, I would take my child aside and say, you know that that is not how we do things in this household. When your friend is here, you are responsible for some of that. you will get in trouble if things continue. Is it worth it to you? You've got to do that too. What I found, because I didn't like the idea of trying to choose my children's friends, that usually backfires on you. It does, yes. The first time, maybe they weren't too sure about that warning. The second time, if more had to come from it, then they usually would drop the friend.

Because they found that it wasn't a friend who... And that was beneficial. Because they were making choices. They were learning how do I choose someone that helps me take the appropriate path that helps me grow in a positive way rather than gets me in trouble.

And yet they knew they could make mistakes. One of our sons came to me one time, we were just talking, and he said, well, so-and-so is really going to have a hard time. I said, why is that? Well, her mother won't let her make any mistakes. My son had made mistakes, and he learned from them. He felt that that was a valuable thing.

He felt that this other mother was sheltering her child so much. As a matter of fact, this girl went on to have a lot of problems. As you get older, you get a little more freedom, and she got sneakier. was doing a lot of things that, had her mother known, would have been devastated.

So both way overprotection and just letting cut loose, both of those end up being not good ways to go in the long run. Because what ends up happening is, on the one hand, they're protected to the point where they never encounter anything to learn anything from. On the other hand, just letting them loose, you're never giving them the guidance and the perspective on things and so they learn all these nasty things the hard way and sometimes it takes a while to learn the nasty things. You don't realize how nasty things are for a while. So there is a matter of both, preparing at each step and then letting them have an opportunity that they'll survive.

Right. If you say, well, I've got to let my kids learn about lawnmowers. Well, they might not. If you just kind of let them loose with a bunch of lawnmowers that are running, that's probably not very good. So there's going to be that guidance and giving them the background and the understanding in order to go into a situation and say, okay, I realize what mom and dad are talking about now. How much overview do you give? enough so they'll survive. They'll come through it and I have a chance to learn and apply what you've taught them.

That's where it needs to be. The extremes are where the problems lie. And that's where, we'll see when we get into the Ephesians 6 passage, that's the exasperation. And you know this really applies, of course we look at it spiritually, but it really applies on all levels of their lives, even their physical safety.

I think of the time our son Ed wanted to drive down to see a friend about 25-30 miles away, and there was an ice storm. And I always said no, so he expected that. So he went to dad, and dad said no. Well, he was really angry. Well, I'm okay, I'm safe, I'll be all right. And Vern said, no, you can't. So he said, well, can I go see this other friend who lived only a half a mile from us? And Vern said, yes, just drive carefully. Well, he was driving carefully.

And he even had put his seatbelt on because that was like the law of our house. And he turned a corner and hit a patch of black ice. And the car hit the curb so hard that it bent the frame. And he had his seatbelt on, but he's taller, and he even hit his head on the top of the car. He said if he hadn't had his seatbelt on, he really would have been hurt. It wrecked the car, but he was okay. Did Vern make him angry?

Yes. Boy, did he learn a lesson quick. Within minutes. Yes. But he still let him go. We let a little bit of rope out, but not enough to hang himself. Because where he was going before, that was freeway on ice storms, and that's when he fell over. But this was one that, you know, it hurt, but he survived. Yeah, to get to the house where he was going was three turns. And the second turn. And after that, he knew.

You just don't play around with that kind of thing. Definitely, when we look at scripture, we're looking for spiritual input. But God cares about our physical being as well. I think we can put that physically as well. One way that I've heard it compared is flying a kite.

If you just sit there and hold on to the string and never let me out, the kite's not going to go anywhere. It's really not flying the kite, it's just holding the kite. If, on the other hand, you just say, oh, I want this kite to fly, so you just let loose. What happens is the kite falls to the ground, the string falls to the ground, and the game's over. Flying the kite involves letting it out at just the right rate.

The secret of parenting is, am I preparing my kid for the next thing that they're going to encounter? Looking down the road, but ultimately they need to be prepared for adult life. In every way. Emotionally, spiritually, financially, all these things. So, that's the key. Not over control, not sit there and choking them to death. Not letting loose. But this path in the middle, you're preparing them a little at a time. They take some steps a little at a time. Ones that they'll survive. Preparation that they'll live through as well. And remember. Yeah. That's the key. Other thoughts? I just would say to you, you won't do it perfectly. And it's hard. It's really hard.

Because as a parent, what happens is you know every failure you made and every mistake you made. And for the rest of your life, you're going to remember mostly those. But honestly, truly, the Lord is very gracious. And in spite of our mistakes and failures, all of our kids love Him. are walking with him and they are wonderful, wonderful people. Every battle and even every mistake is worth it because God loves them more than you do. The mistakes, the places where they stub their toe hard, those just teach grace. Yeah, I'm talking about our toast, though.

That's right. I mean that. And there were times I'd put the boys to bed and we'd have had some big argument or something and I'd go in and I'd say, I am so sorry, would you please forgive me? Can you see the difference when Mommy's walking with the Lord and when she's not? Oh yeah, Ma. Quite clearly. Which was hard to hear But apparently I walked with the Lord enough that they could see a difference.

I think that's key. That's something I have found too, that when I'm just in a crabby mood or it's just been a bad day, to ask them to forgive you or to even just say I overreacted to this or whatever, that teaches them such a lesson. Something you said in an earlier class about making mistakes allows them to trust the Lord. was so profound for me because, you know, you want to do everything right and you want to raise these kids to just be, you know, Christians and wonderful people. But if you always did everything right, they would maybe never need much of a reason to look to the Lord for comfort or guidance or whatever. And I think, and I forget how you exactly said it, but I thought, wow, or when our parents maybe didn't raise us, you know. the right way or whatever, in quotes I say that. But that was one thing I learned, well my kids are still young, but to acknowledge when you have been walking in the flesh or made a mistake or overreacted for them to see that, oh mommy's not perfect either. I think for my kids it's encouraging to them that they're allowed to make mistakes, too. I'm not sure I ever felt like I was, and I certainly did, but it kind of takes some of that pressure off, and I think they trust you more than that you are looking out for their better interests, but you still make mistakes.

One other thing I would just add in here is that In a lot of cases, we may look at the home you grew up in and say, well, something was missing here, or something wasn't right, or something like that.

And that will always be true. Yeah, it will always be something to look at. But I think, what do you compare it to? Ultimately, God's Word, as we'll see, has plenty to build on. So you're going to look at, okay, what do I need to do that's different? What do I need to correct? Or you may have a void. How do I fill in what wasn't there? And we can look to God's word to give us the understanding and the insight to fill in for what we didn't see and we didn't have. Because God's word is sufficient because he's sufficient.

I had a friend back in Nevada who said to me one time, God knew who you were when he gave you those children. And he loves them more than you do. And this is not to excuse your own sin, but he will use that to draw your children to him. And that was an encouragement. To remember that God loves them more than you do. And when you have a child, you are so overwhelmed with how much you love them. It's incredible. It's incredible. It's like nothing else in your life. It's so true. And to think that God loves them even more. Yeah. That's true.

Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the depth and richness of your word. Thank you for the exceedingly valuable guidance that we get and the perspective and understanding. We just pray that you would bring these truths to heart and to application and appropriation in our own lives. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.