The best thing we can offer our kids is a vibrant relationship with God.
Everything else is moth and dust.
Toys, a great school, a great social life, classes, swim lessons, etc are all moth and dust compared giving our kids a burning heart for Jesus.
It’s the only thing that counts at the end of our lives. And getting to that perspective starts with realizing that it’s the only thing that counts at the end of their lives.
They too, one day, will stand before the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the God-man Jesus, who offered the way, the truth, and a full life for those who would abandon their way of life in pursuit of his kingdom and will be asked, “who are you?”
How are we preparing them for that question and that reality? How are we preparing them to stand before God with joy and pride that they “did not love their lives” over the one who gave it to them?
This morning on my way to work, I felt the Lord stir my heart and say: “Phil, the best thing you can offer your kid is the experience of being alive. Fully alive. And there’s nothing you can buy to get that. There’s no school they can go to, there’s no toy that can provide that. You must show them. You must show them what you pursue.”
Yet in the buffet of experiences, toys, and pleasures that middle America offers families, there is such a strong temptation to give our kids a bunch of great earthly things. There is such a strong temptation to spend our limited time and energy to giving them these things and yet wildly missing the mark of what truly matters in this life and the next.
A shift must take place in our minds as we think about parenting. We must shift most of our energies and time with them to give them what truly matters.
To do otherwise is akin to giving our kids moldy bread–to feed them with something that we know will not satisfy. Parenting that matters is parenting that has eternity in mind.
