Someone once said, “You are what you have been becoming.” It’s true; you did not become what you are by any single influence. (e.g. being with the kids in your neighborhood while you were a child, going to a particular school or church, taking a particular vacation, etc.) You are what you are today, because of the sum of the experiences and lessons you have learned along the way. Every event in life has made its impression on you. Every experience has helped to form the man or woman you have become.
Our most recent Vacation Bible School reminded me of just how impressionable we all were as little children. Children have been compared to little sponges ready to absorb and assimilate all sorts of data and experiences into their personality and character. Someone else said, “They are like little pieces of clay in the hands of the potter.” In a very few years, they will be able to say, “I am what I have been becoming.”
My purpose in sharing these observations about our little lumps of impressionable clay is not so much for the kids; they don’t read the paper. My hope is to encourage you as parents and grandparents. You are the master potters; you have more opportunity to shape your children than anyone else ever will. What an awesome responsibility, but what an awesome privilege. I hope that you take it seriously. Who can tell just now, what your child might grow up to be? Perhaps he or she will make national or international news. Will they be terrorists, traitors or CEOs of major corporations? Will their name strike fear and dread in hearts of those who hear them, or will they be remembered as public servants, inventors of good things, and leaders of men?
The Bible is the Word of God. Consider what He, the Author of Life, has to say about raising the next generation, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6).” God defines “the way he should go” in His Word. God bless!