Parenting is a marathon, not a sprint, but God provides great promises and instruction from His Word to guide you. But, while you are rushing your children from tutoring classes to tennis lessons, it’s easy to forget that your first parental responsibility is to introduce them to their Creator and, eventually their Father. Woe to all of us if we raise successful failures; young adults filled with ambition, but no spiritual ammunition. But, how do we mark our children for God?
On Your Mark …
Parents who take child raising seriously need to begin with God’s instructions found in Deuteronomy 6:6-7.
“These commandments that I give you today are to be written on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
These imply both intentional and spontaneous moments that God’s ways and His Word are shared. The two greatest gifts you can give your children is your commitment to helping them meet God and a daily example of how to walk it out. For example, when you stare at the stars, talk about how big God is. When you buy a loaf of bread, mention that Jesus is the Bread of life. The single, most important task for a parent’s day is to “hide God’s Word in their heart” and it takes less than one minute. You can read the 23rd Psalm in just 52 seconds.
A Mark of Ownership
Whenever I teach about this mark of ownership, there is always a nervous giggle in the room. Circumcision. It’s a topic rarely taught, yet rich in spiritual meaning. Abram and his guys were just like everyone else until he had an encounter with Jehovah. Circumcision was the result of that encounter and this physical mark confirmed they were in covenant with God. It was a physical reminder that their seed was blessed. They were reminded several times each day that “they belong to God;” when they bathed, swam, urinated, and undressed for the night, that mark reminded that, “You are different from the other boys. You belong to God. You carry His blessing.”
Marking With Your Mouth
The Hebrews were marked physically with circumcision, but there is another way to mark your children for God. You can mark them with your mouth. In Psalm 127:3-4, God describes children in three ways: a blessing, a reward, and an arrow. As you continually say those words and impress them into your child’s mind, they will be secure and develop emotionally strong.
Let’s be careful never to imply that they are a nuisance or an inconvenience. One child told me, “My momma needs ‘me time’ because she gets tired of me.” Wise are the parents (and grandparents) who often say in front of them what God says about them: “You are a blessing and you are my reward.” Psychologists disagree with the amount of emotional affirmation needed, but it’s been my experience that you can never give enough. Children will believe what they are being told and rise to your expectations.
A Mercy-Mark
It is all too frequent to see children who are raised right turn out wrong. A bad choice (or several) has caused them to run from the presence of the Lord. You may not even know geographically where your grown child is right now or you may know for a fact that they are involved in drugs or alternative lifestyles. There’s an interesting story about Cain murdering his younger brother, Abel, and running from the presence of God. He feared for his life, so God marked him for his protection. We don’t know if this mark was a scar, visible or invisible, but when his enemy saw it, they fled. This mark kept a man alive who was guilty of murder! I believe you can ask God to do the same for your prodigal. I believe that until His wisdom abides in him, His mercy-mark will cover him.
It’s best to start early, but it’s never too late. Let’s focus on what matters and, through a commitment to God’s way and God’s Word, mark our children for God.
Gen. 4:15, Gen. 15:7, Deut. 6:6-7, Ps. 127:3-4
