Behold Children are an heritage from the Lord, fruit of the womb is a reward.
Psalm 127:3
Whenever we think of heritage (an Inheritance) in a worldly point of view we think of Land, some wealth producing asset, Jewelry or Money. Usually whatever you receive as Inheritance is not earned or not toiled for. You receive Inheritance only because you are the heir. To be more clear, our fathers or grandfathers toiled and sweated to procure some wealth and when the time comes it is passed on to us as we are the rightful heirs. It’s at best a gift, a possession that can accelerate our standing or a value addition to what we have or what we toil for. Moreover our Inheritance puts us in advantageous position and has the potential to reduce our burden.
Now when we use this context of Inheritance to Psalm 127: 3 it changes our perspective on our children.
God gave a wonderful realization to me while I was meditating this verse. Did you realize your children are the only gift that directly comes from heaven, that you can feel and touch. You don’t receive any Gold or silver directly from heaven of course God provides it through his creations but Children are known by God even before they are put in their mothers womb. This proves they directly come from God.
Now that we have clearly seen that children are an Inheritance which clearly means we are blessed to receive them. With this is in mind I would like present the 3 attitudes or mindset we have to cultivate or about our children
1) Children are an Inheritance and hence a blessing:
A Inheritance is always a blessing when we receive some form of wealth from our ancestors, it’s always a blessing and everyone in his right mind will gladly receive a Inheritance as it is a blessing, we would not despise it or throw it away.
Similarly Proverbs 10:22 says when God gives a blessing he does not add sorrow to it. So our attitude towards our children should always be that they are a blessing and God will not add sorrow. Do not despise a child because of your current financial or social condition or because of gender. They are a precious blessing not to be discarded.
2) Our Inheritance needs to be protected:
Imagine your ancestor gave you a piece of land in a prime area. If someone else tries to encroach would you not take any action even if the encroachment was a few centimeters.
The people of Israel were asked to posses the promised land and also to protect it from any form pollution or encroachment and the method God asked them to employ is to completely destroy the enemies swatting on their land.
This is the attitude you must have towards your children protect them at all costs. Destroy and annihilate the enemy completely. You may ask but how can I do this. God says put on the armor of God and use the sword of the spirit the word of God.
3) Inheritance needs to become an investment
An Inheritance is useless if it does not grow. Imagine again you were given 1 million us dollars by your father, it would be useless if you simply lock it in your cupboard, the value of the money will decrease over time ( if you consider the current rate of inflation) the least you could do is put it in the bank and it will earn interest. Similarly your children needs to become an investment for the kingdom of God. With God’s guidance invest them, which means give all the necessary platforms, tools and empowerment for them to become productive and fruitful in whatever sphere or influence that God has ordained for them.
At this point of meditation, God reminded me of the parable of talents. We ( as parents) are only stewards just like those in the parable of talents ( Mathew 25: 14-30). God expects that we increase the productivity of our children by 10 fold or 5 fold, make them excellent in their fields by inculcating values and make them valuable assets that can do exploits for the Kingdom of God and give them completely back to him because they are his given to us as Inheritance. But if you cannot do that at least put them in the bank (Mathew 25:27). God revealed to me that just as banks are typically an authorized entity to mange and grow our assets and also has the infrastructure capability to keep our assets in safe, church ( body of God) and spiritual leaders are the banks, the least you could do is put them under a spiritual authority protected by the church they will surely bear interest.
With this attitude in mind let’s view our children as an Inheritance from God.
Finally in psalm 127: 4 & 5 the verse compares children to arrows. Why arrows ? God opened my eyes to this as well.
In Ephesians 6: 10 -18 we see the description of the armor of God but you must note all that is for personal defense and offense for your spiritual warfare. God is a God of multiplication he wants to always expand our territories and boundaries but we cannot be manning all gates or posts at the same time.
We can attack our enemy only to a small radius with a sword. But if we have an arrow we can use it to attack an enemy that stands at a distance. Arrows are the right weapon of choice when you need to secure your boundaries that are at a distance. The arrows will transform into an outpost and further expand the kingdom of God into the direction the God ordains
Sol. Paul