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A LETTER TO MOTHERS

Mother, it is more important that you get things into your child than that you get things for your child.

"And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him" (Ex. 2:1-4).

It says here of the baby Moses that because his sister watched him from afar, this baby, unknown to Pharaoh’s daughter who adopted him, was returned to his mother, Jochebed, who then raised him for the next five, six, or seven years, as scholars tell us.

The remarkable thing about Moses is that he had a mother who was able to put so much of God into him in those few years, that in the next 33 to 35 years, nothing in the household of Pharaoh, nothing evil, corrupt, or worldly, could take out of his heart what his mother, Jochebed, had sown there.

Here was a mother putting something into a little boy in the first few years of life that the world could not take out. How many mothers do we have who can raise a boy for just the first five to seven years of his life, and then turn him over to be adopted by a foreigner, having a strange religion, living in an ungodly, adulterous, or idolatrous home? How many mothers would expect that child to stay the course with all the convictions it received in the first few years of his life?

Moses’ life tells us that the first years of a child’s life, from babyhood until about the first grade, are very impressionable. If a godly mother can stay home with a child in those years, he will have a good start toward becoming an eagle saint. And how much more blessed both mother and child are or will be if the mother pursues the training of her child until he leaves home in early adulthood.

Unfortunately, more and more day-care centers are springing up all over America, centers where mothers drop off their little ones so they can work for money, allowing their child to be influenced more by a stranger than by themselves. Our government wants more and more of these centers, putting them into factories, hospitals, and office buildings, so that more mothers can go to work, abandoning to a very great degree the raising of their children.

Let me ask you, mothers, which is more important to you: to raise a boy or a girl that will impact his or her own world, or the whole world for good unto righteousness, or to have the money to provide that boy or girl with their own room, a bicycle at age six, an automobile at 16, and a college education at 18?

Mothers, which is more important: that you work to give your child all the material advantages that most children in America have today, or that you stay close to him at home, permanently influencing him to live for God? Do not sell yourselves out to the god of mammon by blessing your child with material possessions when God’s divine call upon your life is to bless him with your daily, spiritual influence.

A mother must have the vision for the raising of eagle saints: "...they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint" (Is. 40:31).

Little eagles, called ‘eaglets’, stay with the mother and father and are sheltered from all outside influences until they have wings to fly in order to face the world on their own. They eat no one else’s food, they have no contact with other birds, they go nowhere until their wings are strong enough to fly, to face the storms of life.

Jochebed was a full time mother. By the time Moses was seven years old, she had instilled in him the godly character needed to resist the spirit of the world in his later, adult life.

Few mothers today succeed in building this kind of godly character into their children, for they give in to the pressures of worldly expectations, only to harvest a worldly spirit for them and their little ones.

Let us consider some things that caused Moses to keep what Jochebed gave him and that Pharaoh’s household could not take out of him the rest of his life.

First of all, I’m thoroughly convinced that Jochebed was a woman of prayer. Knowing that she might lose her son in just a very short time, and because of the suffering inflicted upon the Hebrews by the Egyptian people, she was a woman who understood that without God’s help, all would be lost. Daily, she agonized in prayer for her son. These prayers, as well as her praises for God’s mercies, got deep into the fibers of the soul of Moses from the time he was a little suckling to the time he left that little shack in the land of Goshen.

I visited with a gentleman who runs a short-wave radio station reaching all around the world with the Gospel. He said, "The most influential thing in my life that caused me to walk with God was the sound of my mother’s voice coming out of the prayer closet each day."

I believe that there is, perhaps, nothing so impressionable upon a small child as the earnest petitions of a mother who lives her life in the fear of God. My friend, because of his mother’s prayers and petitions, Moses never forgot throughout his life, even in the house of Pharaoh, that he was called of God and that he had to answer to God.

I believe the second thing that Moses’ mother did was to never allow her son to get away with disobedience. Moses, as a little boy, was taught to respect all authority. The book of Romans tells us that all authority is ordained of God. Moses was taught to obey all authority, even those who would treat him unjustly. He most likely was taught not to complain nor to find fault with authority, and he was taught not to run to someone and say, "I was treated unfairly and unjustly. Come and help me."

Had Moses not learned to obey unconditionally all authority figures in those first five to seven years, he would not have made it from a shack in Goshen, from a place of slavery, to the palace in the land of Egypt to become the Savior of Israel!

So, mothers, teach your children, as Jochebed did, to submit to authority--right or wrong, and if there is something that is unfairly or immorally done by a person in authority, go to that person alone and, in a kind, gentle way, talk things over. (Keep in mind, there are cases when our children must be protected from harm.) In general, we should never give our children the impression that authorities are to be questioned or defied, for Paul says that all authority is ordained of God, mostly for justice, and often for injustice, to bring us to the feet of Jesus.

Jochebed, through her praying, put something wonderful into the soul of Moses. She taught him to obey authority, never to complain when treated unjustly, and, finally, she taught him in his first five to seven years not to aggravate authority through a defiant spirit.

How many children have provoked their teachers and youth workers by their actions, attitudes, and responses to the point where the teacher, or authority figure, loses control? My friend, this is just as wicked as down-right disobedience.

Moses would never have been elevated in the Egyptian court had his mother not taught him all these things.

The sole justification for a woman giving birth to a child is that she raise it for the glory of God, and this can only be done, in most cases, if she gives motherhood her full-time attention and energies.

Yes, mothers, many of you have to choose between giving your child a room of his own, with a bicycle at age six, a car at 16, and a college education at 18, or living in a shack and instilling in that child the things of eternity. "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Pr. 22:6). This is not a part-time job but a full time, divine vocation that, if properly exercised, will never be regretted for all eternity.

In my own case, when my mother died, after 50 years of widowhood, she left nothing material behind for me except her Bible. But what she put into my heart, nothing in the world can take away.

-edited for length
http://www.schultze.org/oldCTO219.HTML

A LETTER TO FATHERS

Fatherhood is more than begetting children. It also includes begetting an environment conducive to godly living.

"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ep. 3:14).

First, God begat the angels, next he begat the universe, and then he created man in his own likeness and image. He begat Jesus as the Son of Man when he was conceived into human flesh, then he begat the church on the day of Pentecost. And then, in the future, when we shall meet him in the air, God will beget new bodies for us, and finally God will beget a new heavens and a new earth. Hallelujah! Yes, this is the Fatherhood of God. "I bow my knees unto the Father."

What you just read is all in that word, "Father," and a billion times more!

So then, does it not behoove us earthly fathers to broaden our perspective more as to what we are called to in fatherhood? Is it not more than providing food, clothing, and shelter for our children for the next 18 years? Yea, even many animals will do that much, minus the clothing, of course.

No, we, as God, must include in our call to fatherhood the creating of an environment that nourishes not only the body and mind of our little ones, but so much more their souls, if we want to rise above the animal level of fatherhood. We must create a micro-universe for our children even before we beget them, a micro-universe that speaks from every corner: Go with God! We must beget a habitat where the wind of the Holy Spirit blows through the souls of men and the spirit of Jesus is ever present even in the most trying times.

Therefore, father, create a home where the books on the shelves are such that they neither confuse nor distract your child from the narrow way. Create a home where you need no apology on Judgment Day for the records, the cassette tapes, the CDs, and for the movies and television programs you or your children have kept and used. Create a home where conversations are filled with "God talk," where evil is shunned and ungodly relationships are avoided.

Create a home where patience and long-suffering never run out; where tempers never flare; where voices are never raised in anger; where no one is ever allowed to pout; where prayer and praises are as common as breathing; where servanthood is the watchword; where sacrifice is considered one of the highest virtues; and where going the second and third mile is the rule rather than the exception.

Oh, father, look at all that God our Father has begotten for us. Shall we not then also beget more than our own flesh and blood; shall we not then also take from his riches and custom-create an environment where the souls of our children will flourish and bloom in the light of the glory and mercies of the Lord in order to live with him forever?

Yes, fathers, create, or shall I say beget a home where men of God are not criticized but prayed for, where mothers are treated like queens, and where the needy are looked after.

Create a home where forgiveness is granted 7 times 70 times, where saving and giving are greater than spending and getting, where the mother’s discipline is backed up consistently by the father’s words and strong hand.

Create a home where you are as accessible to your children as God is accessible to you, where church attendance is not sporadic but regular, where prayer meetings are attended, where visiting the sick ranks higher than sports, television programs, and hobbies, and where the best of plans are dropped in a second when the Holy Spirit speaks and says, "Come with me."

Create a home where excuses are only allowed when circumstances are beyond our control, where laziness is unknown, where punctuality is no stranger, where industry and hard work are known as a blessing, where jesting, joking, and kidding are unheard of, where the Bible is read daily, where children are not spoiled, where Sundays are not sacrificed for work, sleep, or recreation, where children are fed wholesome food to keep them from preventable diseases, and where the elderly are honored and looked after.

Dear father, shall I add more, or is this enough? "I bow my knees unto the Father."

Oh, let this be enough: the Fatherhood of God teaches us that begetting the environment, the habitat, is just as much a calling as begetting the person for the environment.

May God grant us all his tender mercies in the expansion of our duties that we can hear that sweetest of all voices on Judgment Day: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant... enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" (Ma. 25:21).

http://www.schultze.org/oldCTO220.HTML

I meant to add a footnote to these, because I didnt want to edit the authors message. While the overall advice is as excellent as any I`ve read on this subject, those who know me know I could`nt possibly agree with "where jesting, joking, and kidding are unheard of"
I take the things of God very seriously, but I think we as humans can and oft do take our SELVES more seriously than we should, and I am persuaded that giving the gift of laughter to our children is as important to their health as what we feed them.