“Children are such a blessing!”
“Congratulations on the blessing of your marriage!”
These things truly are blessings from God above, however they don’t always seem like it do they? The Bible clearly states both marriage and offspring to be a blessing.
Ps 128:3 Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
In the very heart of your house,
Your children like olive plants
All around your table.
I don’t know about you, but the type of vine my spouse represents seems to be more of a weed than a fruitful vine most of the time. Why is this? The fruitful vine in the passage is a slender plant that grows across the ground unless placed on supports. Our spouse could be that fruitful vine we are looking for, but maybe we need to look on the ground, and lift them up and support them.
Gen 2:18 And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
A supported spouse is more likely to be fruitful, and the kind of “vine” that we all seem to be looking for. Stop looking elsewhere admiring better “vines”, and don't point out the flaws of your own if you've neglected to support it. Start at home and take care of the fruitful vine that God has already placed at your feet. Take this blessing and learn all the lessons you can from it. Marriage is hard, but when you let Christ lead you through it, the blessings are wonderful.
Ps 128:3 Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
In the very heart of your house,
Your children like olive plants
All around your table.
In the time the Bible was written, olive plants were practically priceless. I’m sure my children are priceless... (I know that deep down) but more days than not, I feel like I would pay someone to "borrow" them for a moment of my own sanity. When you look further into scripture you understand that not only was the olive plant priceless, but it was an essential part of life for the rich and poor. The wood was hard and used in special furniture and statues. The oil was used to anoint kings and prophets. It was also used in cooking, cosmetics, and medicine. The olives themselves were pickled and an important part of yearly food storage. When you owned an olive plant, it could bless your family in all these ways.
My children are priceless not because they are geniuses or will compose the next great musical master piece. (Heck I’m even dreading the years of piano lessons). Our children are priceless because God has given each of them the talents and abilities to be able to further bless our family. The lesson comes in the fact that we as parents need to cultivate each of our precious “olive plants” into the young people and adults that we want them to be, as a blessing to us and as a blessing to society.
Let’s stop with the selfishness of materialism for ourselves as parents but also for our children. Raising a child is a non-stop learning process for both the child and the parent. What are we doing to love and teach our children right now? They should be our focus. We need to focus on the children in front of us and remember that it is solely our jobs as owners of these “plants” to raise them.
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