2 Timothy 1:5
When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also
One of the first verses I ever heard mentioned for mothers was 2 Timothy 1:5. I found it strange that it was talking about two specific women and that we were focusing on it thousands of years later (I was a child. It didn’t make sense to me that we were reading someone’s letters). But this is a very big deal. Their faith was big enough to be mentioned and then written down in the Bible for us to read about. These weren’t “great men of the faith” that fought battles like David, or suffered persecution like the disciples. These were just two regular women, a mother and a grandmother, that worked in the life of a young boy.
Your faith cannot save your child. That was one of the realizations that has been hitting me hard this week.No matter what happens, my child has to choose Jesus for herself. Me going to church and teaching in Sunday school won’t save her. Her daddy going to church and leading church music or VBS won’t save her. It might help, but our actions don’t change the reality that salvation is very much a personal choice.
Your faith may not save your child, but it can be enough to impact them properly for eternity. Will it have a positive impact- one where you visibly loved God and loved serving him with your family? Will it have a negative impact- where you grudgingly went to church on Sunday and an occasional Wednesday, but never took the time to discuss the service? Or possibly even worse, will it have a nonexistent impact? One where you might go on holidays, but sports and events and other things take over and God really has no place? (I say even worse, because the Bible itself shows Jesus stating he would rather we were hot or cold, than lukewarm)
If we want our child to have a childhood blessed by God and saturated with his presence, we ourselves need to work on our own relationships, our own faiths.
Be the reason your child has as many opportunities to accept Christ as possible. Don’t be the reason they barely hear about him.
