When you prioritize God’s voice above all others and honor His word, He opens doors for your children you never knew were there and could not have opened by yourself.
This has happened so many times for our family! One example I can think of right now pertains to basketball, which we love and which our oldest son seemed to have a natural gift for.
You know how many parents push and shove and manipulate the system to get their kids a place to be positioned in sports? Whew! CRAZY folks! And its not just sports…
We started Elty (Elton McMillan III) on a team when he was five years old and he was so much fun to watch! He was on our local kid’s club teams and school teams. His daddy coached him some times and made some sweet memories. As our kids got older, God began asking us to do things that were time-consuming and lifestyle-changing. We started homeschooling, moved to Africa for a year, my husband had a major job change, I had a kidney transplant, we started running a private school; things like that. Just life! Our kids were right there with us serving and working hard and being understanding that there was just not enough left in us at the end of the day to pursue sports. We just pulled back. There were times when Elty wanted to go to Basketball camps but we just couldn’t stretch our money to do it.
As a parent you feel like everyone else is putting their kids in the best position to succeed, and you want to be that parent! We often talked about the fact that God was providing for his future in amazing ways that we couldn’t see at the time.
By the time he reached High-School it seemed like his training consisted of a lot of one-on-one on the driveway, but we signed him up for try-outs on our local public High-school team.
It was amazing! He was chosen to be the starting point guard and he lead his team to State! (Oregon, 3A) He also went to state finals in triple-jump and high-jump with the track team. I just sat on the bench time after time and watched God be powerful on our behalf. I was one proud mama! The best part was the smile on his face when he ran down the court or flopped over the high bar. I know that his faith in his God was strengthened as he realized that God cares about his dreams!
As parents, there are things we just cannot or will not afford our children, and there are opportunities we can’t manipulate for them, but God is faithful! When we put HIS will above our own, and teach our children to do the same, He opens doors we haven’t even considered. He treats our children royally for His name sake. This is yet another example of how God partners with us in our parenting, and how we can teach our children to partner with us in faith. It is amazing to watch them begin to reap the blessing of being a righteous man or woman themselves.
I encourage you to do this little Bible study from Psalms and Proverbs with your children and find out what some of those blessings are. Wisdom is speaking truth here!
Psalm 37:16
A little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked.
When the Bible says someone is wicked, it means anyone who is hostile toward God, the opposite of righteous. So, what DOES the righteous have that is better than the riches of many wicked?
- Blessing and favor that protects and beautifies (Psalm 5:12)
- Salvation, strength in trouble (Psalm 37:39)
- He will never be shaken, he will be remembered (Psalm 112:6)
- Blessings crown his head (Proverbs 10:6)
- He is given a good name (Proverbs 10:7)
- An everlasting foundation (Proverbs 10:25)
- He is established and cannot be moved (Proverbs 12:3)
- He leaves his children an inheritance (Proverbs 13:22)
- A refuge when he dies (Proverbs 14:32)
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