Seeing your children through God's eyes.

Who's Living in Your House?

by Deborah Reed

When Samuel went to Jesse’s house to tell him that the Lord had chosen one of his sons to be anointed king of Israel, Jesse was elated! So he prepared a dinner for the prophet and invited his sons. As Samuel looked at each son, one by one when he was done he asked Jesse if this was all of his sons. Jesse admitted that his son David was in the fields working. So he sent for David and of course we know that it was David that the Lord had chosen. The question that has to be asked is if you knew that one of your children was going to be chosen as your king, wouldn’t you have included all of your children in the dinner? The only conclusion can be that Jesse didn’t see David the way that God did. He was not aware of the greatness in his own son! He had no idea who was living in his house!

This is the compelling lesson for us all today. Have we really looked at our children through the eyes of God and seen the potential that is in them? Are they the treasure that heaven has been waiting to release in the world? It is so easy to overlook the ones that we love in the busyness of our day to day lives, and we don’t always recognize the gift that they are. I like to tell children’s leaders to not get rid of the trouble-makers in their classes….they are probably the prophets!

There are remarkable stories throughout the Bible of children who saved the lives of their parents. Not all of them were perfect. But it was always evident that God saw something about them that others missed. I was introduced to this idea about Jesse overlooking David a few years ago. This began a journey of looking at the lives of many children in the Bible and how their decisions affected their family and sometimes their nation!

Did the parents realize who was living in their house? Consider Esther, raised by a cousin. She was brought into circumstances that required her to risk her life to save her people. Next is Samuel, who as a child clearly heard God’s voice and would be the prophet at a time in Israel where there was no widespread revelation. Samuel was given to a man who clearly did a terrible job with his own sons. But God prevailed even when parents failed!

Then there was Mary. A very young teenager discovers she is pregnant and yet praises God for the opportunity to be a blessing. How about Jesus Himself? As a child He certainly was normal, but did Mary and Joseph have any idea who He was?

There were also children who were not so “holy” -- like Jacob. He was certainly a lot of trouble, but when the Lord looked at him? He called him Israel. And the child Joseph is interesting -- he made his brothers so jealous that they wanted to kill him! Not great character for a chosen one, but God saw who he was going to be, and let his circumstances train him for his future.

All of these children had a destiny. All of them affected their worlds. All of them were brought up by parents who may or may not have seen greatness in them. The truth is that the people who brought them up were as significant as the children themselves. If we are compelled to ask the question, “Who’s living in MY house”, will we make different decisions concerning our children than we are today? If we let the Lord begin to reveal their strengths, weaknesses, and destiny to us, wouldn’t that help us make some decisions about what we allow in their lives? For example, Moses was raised in a heathen palace, but you would assume that a great leader of Israel would need to have been trained by his own people! We cannot assume that giving our children a narrow upbringing will assure that they are prepared for what God wants for their lives.

I have rarely met any parent (who despite failure and shortcomings) didn’t do their best for their children. It is more obvious to me than ever that once we have done all we can and given our best efforts, it is then that God comes and does what we cannot do. We co-labor with Him for our kids.

I have three children and I understand the difficulties that parenting can bring. I was young with my first two, and my own need for attention robbed them of the attention they needed to feel affirmed and loved. 12 years after my second child was born, I had a premature child born at 26 weeks (full term is 40). She weighed just over two pounds. As an older mother and someone who had tried to have another child for many years, I looked at this daughter much differently than I had my first two. Every day was a gift. I looked at her as one who was saved for a destiny and raised her through that perspective. My qualifications to be her mother were no different than my first two children. I just looked at her differently. I was not perfect. She is not perfect. But she is an amazing young woman that I can see is prepared to affect her world.

It is not too late to turn and look at your own children through God’s eyes and see the treasure they are to Him. Repent for overlooking them if you need to, but begin to train up your children with the confidence that God can do with them what you are lacking.