Thoughts From Hebrews - Day 35

                                               Hebrews 11:32-34

And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, ³³ who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.


        When I look at these names I see children of the Bible. The town's people went to Gideon's dad and complained about him tearing down the idols which implies to me that he is young. Judges follows Samson from his miraculous birth as does 1 Samuel with Samuel being given to Eli to raise in the temple. David was the runt of the family, not even allowed to attend the meeting of the family with Samuel. I look at all these young men, born in weakness, who turned into men of strength, strong enough to lead the Israelites in an antagonistic world. How do we turn our kids into Godly Children of strength? Here are some thoughts.

      1. Make them work - As soon as they are old enough encourage them to find employment. So many parents just give their kids everything and this just produces lazy, spoiled, entitled kids. Work teaches responsibility, being under authority, independence, money management, delaying gratification, tithing, saving, benevolence - it helps kids grow up quicker. We see Gideon threshing wheat in a winepress when we are introduced to him. We see David tending sheep and Samuel working in the temple.

    2. Let them see you standing up for Godliness - How do you expect your kids to be strong for Christ and have a backbone if you don't. The whole "Do what I say, not what I do" just doesn't work. When the ungodly idol worshipping neighbors of Gideon came against his dad, his dad stood his ground and developed a back bone. My guess is that impacted Gideon.

   3. Teach them to worship - What kind of music do you listen to in your house or in your car? Teach your kids there is nothing better than worshipping God. Barak sang a song of praise after his victory. David played a harp, wrote the Psalms, and sang. Samuel grew up in the temple. Get your kids in a kid's choir. The kids at our church sang Sunday about how they believed the Bible was the Word of God. What a blessing. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times - Kids raised exclusively on Christian music don't stray.

    4. Let them go through tough situations - We don't want to see our kids get picked on, get bad grades, fix their own car, clean up their own messes, so we bail them out. We call teachers or call parents of bullies. We do their science fair projects, type their papers - I've even given blood for extra credit for one of my kids so he could get an A. All these kids that went from weakness to strength went through tough times and it made them strong.