As a mom and a wife, I have enjoyed watching my husband interacting with our children over the years. Quite honestly, neither of us had much experience with children and had very little confidence about this “parenting thing.” Through God’s amazing grace, we have grown to realize that there is no greater joy in life than to raise up these little people in character and integrity, with a firm understanding of the Gospel and the operation of the Kingdom of God, so that we can one day release them into the world with a vision and purpose to pierce through the darkness and reflect His glorious light, and as a result change their world.
When the children were young, my husband would get on the floor to play with them, essentially stepping out of his world and entering into their world of play, viewing the world from their young, innocent perspective. Though this daddy had a wealth of knowledge and wisdom which he longed to impart to them, all interaction and teaching was on a level their young minds could grasp. Most of his great wisdom remained untapped due to their inability to understand. During this very important period of their childhood, a foundation of intimacy was built and hearts were bonded between them.
This Father has
the child’s heart
Now the children are halfway through the process of being prepared for life. They have matured greatly, opening a new window of opportunity for Daddy to impart to them doses of that vast wisdom housed within him. Now, during this period of child-rearing, they are stepping out of their childhood world to step into Daddy’s world, seeing through Daddy’s eyes and tasting of the goodness of abiding with Daddy. In this time, Daddy is able to expose them to experiences beyond anything they could have thought of or imagined and open their eyes to perceive things beyond their small child’s world. Because of the foundation built in the early childhood years, and because the children’s hearts are following after Daddy, Daddy is able to share more of his own heart and take them to deeper understanding of things that, to this point, only Daddy could perceive. This has increased my husband’s delight in his children to unprecedented levels.
I feel certain, once the time arrives to send them out into the world to carry forth the name of Christ, Daddy will then enjoy an even deeper relationship with them, as he will then be able to call them “friend” adding a new level of intimacy and a new way for their hearts to bond even deeper. In this time, Daddy will finally be free to reveal the depths of his knowledge, the very thing his heart has been longing to release for years.
Through all the ages and stages of life, Daddy will always have the most amazing, special level of relationship known to man, the one that supersedes all other types of love. That is the one you have with your child.
As I ponder the wonder of it all, my Father in heaven begins to reveal to me this is exactly His heart toward us. He desires for us to abide in Him, follow as He leads us into maturity, so that He can reveal more and more of the truth of His Kingdom with us and share a larger portion of His vast wisdom. Yet, at every stage, through every success and failure, He delights excessively in us because of that most special of all relationships, He calls us His children.
