My Children - My Reflection

I have two small children and every day I see more and more of myself and my husband in them. Good and unfortunately bad traits from both of us show through them. I catch myself stopping in mid-sentence or before I lose my temper to re-evaluate what I am going to teach them through my words and actions. Although they have free will to do whatever they want to do, with love, direction and discipline we teach our children what we feel is the correct way to live and hopefully when they are grown they will take the values we have taught them and live by them.

I believe God does the same thing with us. Through the Bible and through different teachers, whether it is our parents, Pastor or both, we learn the values that Christ wants us to live by. We in turn become a reflection of Him, just as our children are the reflection of us. I have known this my entire life, but it wasn’t until I had my own children and saw how they emulate me and my husband, that it became clear. We try as teenagers to be what are parents are not, but somehow, no matter how hard we try, we end up resembling our parents. If I was not brought up with the Bible and the teachings in it, I do not want to even imagine how I would have turned out. Throughout my life, Christ has been there with me, even though I was not living out the values that I was taught.

I pray that my children remember the values and love that I am trying to instill in them. I pray that they will always remember the lessons of love, discipline and direction that I am teaching them. The Bible says “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6) I believe every word of this verse. I am living proof! I was raised with Bible studies every morning for 10 years before school. I lived like hell through my twenties. I am now in my forties and have given my life completely back to God, who in His grace has forgiven me. I pray for my children’s sake, they choose to stay with God and the teaching I am giving them, and that they never stray, but if they go off course I still have Gods promise that they will come back.