Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord.
Children--Divine gifts
Children come not into the world by chance or fate. God sends them as His gifts.
I. They are gifts of great value.
1. They are of great value in themselves.
(1) The intellectual possibilities of a child. In the babe which the mother for the first time presses to her bosom, there may be powers that will work out into the greatest of poets, sages, apostles, reformers, even angels.
(2) The emotional possibilities of a child. What capabilities of love and hate, wrath and tenderness, rapture and misery.
2. They are of great value to the parents.
(1) Look at the influence of a child on the mind of a parent. It unseals a new fountain of love. It creates a new world of interest, it supplies new motives for diligence, sobriety, and virtue.
(2) Look at the power of a child to bless the parent. It comes with the filial instinct deeply planted in its nature, an instinct which, as it rightly develops itself, makes the parent the object of its strongest and purest affection, its most loyal and devoted service. When God gives to parents a loving and loyal child, He gives that which is of more worth to them than lordly estates, or even mighty kingdoms.
II. They are gifts involving great trusts.
III. They are gifts that may become great curses. Man has a faculty of perversion. In nature he can turn food to poison, make the quickening sunbeam his own destroyer, and transform the blessings of Providence into curses. Thus he can deal with his own child, his choicest gift from God. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
About children
I. Children are a Divine treasure. God prizes children because they are--
1. His images.
2. His instruments. From a holy child the Most High can let His glory shine forth as truly as from an aged saint. In the goodness which He can form in the young, there is an attractive beauty by which all hearts are melted, and which is fitted to convince the proudest gainsayer. It is not the largest flowers which the gardener cherishes most tenderly, or to which he points his visitors as the best proof of his skill and taste.
II. Children are a Divine gift.
1. One of inestimable value. They are to take our places when we go away--to repair the losses caused by the removal of others--to labour in that with which we are now busy--to carry on and to carry further whatever of noble and useful effort we have begun--not merely to replace but to surpass us.
2. One of happy influence. They diffuse a Divine harmony over the hearts of those who take them as from God, and train them as for Him. They keep alive our noblest feelings. To them we owe much of that tenderness of heart, which is so imperilled by the business, and cares, and wickedness of the world. They are a witness from God which we cannot suppress.
III. Children are a Divine trust.
1. We must strive to show them a right example.
2. We must give them a careful training.
3. We must show a kindly interest in them.
4. We must give them our fervent prayers. (A. MacEwen, D. D.)
Children--God’s gift
What we want is for every father and mother to be moved be say when a little one is put into their arms, “This child is a heritage from the Lord, a sign of the Divine favour towards us, a precious charge of love to be brought up in His nurture and admonition.”
I. Try to estimate their worth. As God’s gifts they possess an inestimable value. Nothing He sends can be worthless. The humblest flower which “He pencils into beauty by a ray of sunlight is not to be overlooked. Of every work that bears the mark of His creative touch, however insignificant, the exhortation may be uttered, “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones.” How much more shall it be said--and said by the Master of men Himself--of those little flowers of humanity that spring up and bud and blossom in our homes. The hopes of two worlds, of time and eternity, meet in every child born into our homes. Have we ever realized as completely as we might do what they are and may become? If we have attempted this, then all relationships in which they may stand to us are as nothing compared with this, that they may become heirs of immortality and eternal life.
II. Try to understand their individual characters. A family is a little world. Each member of it has a personality of his and her own. But what that is who can tell? There is no magic method of discovering it. God has hot intended to save us the trouble of constant watchfulness by sending with each child a tabulated description of its character. Everything is unformed, yet there is a distinct individuality lying and working underneath, and that manifests itself as education and circumstances develop the mind and heart. What we have to do is to wait, and watch, and guide; acknowledging the existence of variety, yet training it in wholesome ways.
III. Try to appreciate the power of your influence. Do they learn from us to honour and to attain the highest principles? Do they see that we as Christian men and women esteem godliness and truth above all other things? Let our influence be such as to nurture in them a fervent love of what is right because it is right, and a profound abhorrence to all that is mean, selfish, double-minded, impure, un-Christlike, and then will their minds respond with quick sensitiveness to all forms of goodness, and turn with spontaneous hatred from that which is contrary to uprightness and truth. (W. Braden.)
The pleasure given by children
There is a pathetic passage in the autobiography of Herbert Spencer, which was published some time ago. At the age of seventy-three he wrote, “When at Brighton in 1887, suffering the ennui of an invalid life, passed chiefly in bed and on the sofa, I one day, while thinking over modes of killing time, bethought me that the society of children might be a desirable distraction.” And so he wrote to a friend, “Will you lend me some children?” The children were sent to him, and of them he wrote, “instead of simply affording me a little distraction. .. afforded me a great deal of positive gratification.” And the great scientist who had no children to love longed for the gifts that had not been bestowed upon him.