Words change over time. We have all experienced that, sometimes stumbling over verbal gaffes that we don’t even understand. For example, the word “extension.” A hundred years ago, an extension might have meant to add length to a fishing pole. Fifty years ago, we were adding another phone line. Ten years ago, we extended our IRS filing deadline.
Now? It’s another world out there. Computers have taken over, and an extension means something totally different.
PDF? That’s Adobe Acrobat, a portable document file. RTF? Rich text format. How about MPG? That’s a MPEG image file. DOC? Microsoft Office.
What about these? BAK; DBF; GIF; PUB; or ZIP. It’s enough to drive us to distraction. There are hundreds of file extensions, and there is no way to remember them all.
Yet, there is one type of extension we do not dare ignore. It’s the extension that God gives us in our families. Our children.
Now, if we don’t have children, we can't stop reading here. What about those four-year-olds in our Sunday school classes, or the eights who ride their bikes through our yards? Try teaching a sixth grade class of twelve-year-olds, or chaperoning sixteens at a dance.
We all have children, whether they come home with us each night, or we simply interact with them during the day, and each of them is a gift from our God, an extension of who we are.
Let’s read about how we can make sure our extensions get the best from what life has to offer them:
Life Opportunity #1: We are to teach our children with the wisdom of the Lord.
Proverbs 1:8 – My son, hear the instruction of your father, and forsake not the law of your mother.
Life Opportunity #2: Our children need to be able to trust us in all our instructions and examples.
Colossians 3:20 – Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
Life Opportunity #3: We set our example for our children with the way we honor our own parents.
Deuteronomy 5:16 – Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commands you; that your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you, in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
Life Opportunity #4: Life well lived comes from an attitude of respect.
Matthew 15:4 – For God commanded, saying, Honor your father and mother: and, He that curses father or mother, let him die the death.
Life Opportunity #5: It is our example that brings the respect of our children back upon us.
Ephesians 6:1 – Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
Life Opportunity #6: An example given and an example followed will bring God’s blessings on our children until the end of their days.
Psalm 103:17 – But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto their children's children.
Our children are us, Version 2. They are what we make them. That old saying, “The Nut Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree,” is more true than some of us would like to admit.
It is up to us to make sure our children become people of whom we can be proud.
Our example is what our children will become.
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