Blessing Our Children; Blessing Our Future

Blessing Our Children; Blessing Our Future
Rev . Lonnie C. Crowe 

   2,500 years ago, Socrates opined, "The children now love luxury; they
have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for
elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants,
not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders
enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company,
gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their
teachers."
   In 1960, Lee Adams wrote the following lyrics for the musical Bye Bye
Birdie: "Kids ! They are just impossible to control! (Soon you'll be old
enough to be) Kids ! With their awful clothes and their rock an' roll!
(Another teenage delinquent ) Why can't they be like you were, Perfect
in every way? What's the matter with kids today?" Fifty years ago, Mr.
Adams wrote satirically. Yet, he focused on what many adults in the
western culture continue to voice about children and young adults. We
have, for at least 2500 years, cursed our children and, thereby, have
cursed our future. It is not too late to change and to begin blessing
our future by blessing our children.
   Two keys to blessing our future:
   1. Proverbs 22:6" Train up a child in the way he should go, and when
he is old he will not depart from it." "Train" is the operative word.
Let's take a moment and rephrase Socrates: We must train children now to
appreciate and enjoy the necessities of life; we must model for them
good manners and respect for authority; in our behavior, we must show
respect for elders and the importance both of healthy exercise and
healthy relationships. We must teach our children their proper place and
responsibilities as functioning members of the household and of the
community . We must model for them the proper way to address their
parents. We must train them to be good conversationalists without
dominating the conversation, to employ proper manners, proper posture
and proper conduct in the classroom and in the workplace.
   Whether we want to accept it or not, adults are role models for
children. It is time for us to get over ourselves and accept the
privilege of training children to be effective adults.
   2. No matter their age, we must learn to speak blessings over our
children . We cannot speak negatively about and to children and expect
that they will behave positively . If children are to be productive and
successful, we must declare words of life and hope over them. Proverbs
18:21 declares "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those
who love it will eat its fruit." In other words, we will reap the
consequences of what we sow with our words. 
   In Proverbs 10:11, we read, "The mouth of the righteous is a well of
life." We must carefully choose our words in order to speak life into
our children.
   In order to bless our future, we must bless our children in the
present . Blessings are spoken words and are usually accompanied with an
affirming touch. Eastern cultures have long practiced the rite of
blessing their children. Each Sabbath, Jewish fathers speak a specific
blessing over their children. We can bless our children by speaking
words of hope and encouragement over them and by declaring the Word of
God over their lives. For example, "You are my child. I love you and am
pleased with you. You will do well in life. God's word says that
children are a blessing and I agree with Him."
   Or, for children in general, "I love what I see in you. I love what
God has spoken in His word for you. Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the
thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and
not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."
   If you are uncomfortable with such formality , simply say, "You're a
good kid, and I like having you around."