A Correction and A Cause for Great Joy
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We are sorry…
By error, the last Christian Heritage e-Newsletter listed the Father/Son Retreat deadline as June 24th.
The correct registration Father/Son Retreat registration deadline is July 24th.
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The Parent’s Joy
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. ~ 3 John 4
One of the parent’s highest joys is his children’s walking in truth; he has no greater joy. And here we must begin with the remark that it is a joy peculiar to Christian fathers and mothers. No parents can say from their hearts, “We have no greater joy than to hear that our children walk in truth,” unless they are themselves walking in truth. No wolf prays for his children to become sheep…
I fear that many, even among professors of religion, could not truthfully repeat my text; they look for other joy in their children, and care little whether they are walking in truth or not. They joy in them if they are healthy in body, but they are not saddened though the leprosy of sin remains upon them. They joy in their comely looks, and do not inquire whether they have found favor in the sight of the Lord. Put the girl’s feet in silver slippers, and many heads of families would never raise the question as to whether she walked the broad or the narrow road. It is very grievous to see how some professedly Christian parents are satisfied so long as their children display cleverness in learning, or sharpness in business, although they show no signs of a renewed nature. If they pass their examinations with credit, and promise to be well fitted for the world’s battle, their parents forget the child will need to be fitted by divine grace, and armed with the whole armor of God. . .
What bliss it would be to us to see our sons grow up, and with integrity, prudence, uprightness, and grace, walk in truth, and to behold our daughters springing up in all their
comeliness, lovely with the adornment of a meek and quiet spirit, becoming in their homes while with us, or in the new homes which speedily grow up around them, patterns of everything that is tender, gracious, and kind, and true. “I have no greater joy than this,” says John, and truly all of you to whom such joy as this has been allotted can say, “Amen, Amen, it is even so.”
~ by C. H. Spurgeon, Spurgeon’s Sermons on Family and Home, Kregel Publications, 1995, pp. 21-24.