Lion Heart ENCOURAGE – Parental Encouragement and Wisdom

Introduction:

Today I’d like to encourage those of us who are parents. Parenting today is a very challenging task. We live in a time where ungodly ideas and philosophies spring up like mushrooms overnight. These weeds are aided by technology and the media that fan these evil concepts into flame from a spark. We need to be closer to God than ever before brothers, we need to be more on our guard that ever before.

I know you’re doing your best, but still many times you feel as if you’re falling short. We serve a God that is Gracious! So today we’re also going to glean some practical wisdom from a guy that got a second chance from God. We’ll get some practical insights from the High Priest Eli and his prodigy Samuel.

Encouragement:

You’ll remember from the first book of Samuel, the priest named Eli. Now Eli was a priest who served as the chief religious leader at the sanctuary in Shiloh. Many considered him a High Priest, but it was not specifically stated like that in the bible.

It would seem that although Eli loved the Lord, he was not always strong enough in his conviction to take a stand against what he knew was wrong. This is starkly on display with his biological sons, Hophni and Phinehas. They committed the most abominable acts before the Lord and caused the people to despise the sacrifice. Eli was aware of these abominations, but merely verbally reprimanded his sons allowing their sin to continue. There were no corresponding consequences for their sin. The consequence should match the crime.

We see here that if a parent just talks and never follows up with some ‘painful’ consequences that children never learn, and more concerningly, the child will eventually despise their parents’ reproof! Our words need to carry the weight of impending action, or we face the risk of becoming clanging symbols. Words without action are like clouds without rain, worthless.

At a time where he needed to take a firm stand against evil, Eli seemed to value his son’s acceptance more than righteousness.

As a parent, we will face situations when our children are behaving badly, sometimes very badly, and we are left with a decision: Do we play it softly when we know this would do more harm than good, or do we do what’s right even though it’s difficult?

Disciplining our children is a very important aspect of raising Godly offspring, but I’d like to add a point of balance here. There are two extremes here. We have Eli and his inaction on the one end, and then sometimes out of a genuine desire to do what’s right some parents would maybe sometimes err on the other side of the scale, and they discipline every single misstep of their children as if it were an evil uprising.

Parent, I get you. I know you’re just trying to do what you believe is right. But I’d like to show you something that really helped me in these situations. Simply put, we should look at the heart of the child, not only the misstep. Sometimes we just discipline the action but miss our child’s hearts. You see, Jesus, when dealing with the worst of sinners didn’t heap scorn on them, but when he saw a repentant heart Jesus extended grace upon grace. And this same Jesus, when addressing the pride and hypocrisy of the pharisees meted out severe and unbridled judgements towards them.

You know, most children generally do not have an ‘evil’ heart. Their intentions are not for evil, and their hearts are not hard. There is a difference when addressing a cold hard heart and a heart that simple needs some guidance.

We should focus on observing the heart of the child more than the actions, and this should guide our course of discipline.

In the case of Eli and his sons, this had gone far far beyond a gentle nudge. They were knowingly and repeatedly committing abominable actions against the people of God, right in the template grounds. This very wayward sin was probably due to Eli being too lenient as a parent and not being prepared to administer harsh correction when needed many years earlier.

Eli failed as a parent to his own sons. And God punished both him and his sons for this.

But even though this picture is very disturbing, we see God’s AMAZING Grace shine through.

God gave Eli a second chance. God gave Eli the chance to be a father a second time around. God gave Eli a new ‘son’ named Samuel.

And Eli came good. Let’s look at some of the key pointers we can glean from how Eli faired the second time around.

1 Samuel 3v1

  “Then the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli and the word of the Lord was rare in those days there was no widespread revelation”

Notice that in a day of widespread secularization Eli encouraged and instructed Samuel to minister/seek to the Lord. He maintained a spiritual emphasis in this young man’s life even when there was no spiritual emphasis in the society and in the culture.

ACTIVE

Eli was an ACTIVE parent “Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli”. Eli was there. Eli was present. Eli was ACTIVE in Samuel’s spiritual journey. Good parents bring their kids to church, good parents read the Bible to their kids, good parents help them to decipher problems through a spiritual lens, good parents keep them in the Tabernacle ministering to the Lord. They’re active in their children’s lives.

ACCESSIBLE

“One night Samuel was asleep when he arose when he was aroused by a voice that called his name. Samuel thought it was Eli and he ran to the bed to see what he wanted” And of course it wasn’t Eli it was the voice of the Lord not the voice of Eli. But it’s important to note that when Samuel was upset or surprised or needed help, look where he turned. He knew he could come to Eli. Eli was ACCESSIBLE. Samuel knew about how Eli treated him that Eli considered him to be important and Samuel knew that he could run to Eli whenever he had a need.

A survey was taken a number of years ago of children across America and the question was posed what three things does your father say most often. The top three were “I’m too tired”, “we don’t have enough money” and “keep quiet”. If you added to that “not now”, “in a minute” and “ask your mom” you’d have all 6. We need to never forget the kids spell love T.I.M.E. Be accessible to your kids.

AMBASSADOR

In verse six again God calls Samuel but Samuel mistakes God for Eli. Parents understand every child is liable to mistake God’s voice for your voice. Their earthly Dad is usually a child’s first impression of their heavenly Dad. A good parent will always remember that they are an ambassador of God to their Children. You represent God to your child.

AWARE

And of course the Lord calls Samuel a 3^rd time and when he comes to Eli who is an old priest, now realizes what’s really going on. His eyesight is gone but his insight is still sharp and he was aware in other word aware what was happening in young Samuel’s life.

Eli tells Samuel to go back and lie down but this time when the voice calls he should respond speak “Lord for your servant hears” and that’s exactly what Samuel does. An effective parent looks for insight into what’s happening in their child’s life. It’s God speaking to my child if he is I want to encourage my child to listen. Is my child confused  I want to offer an explanation, are they afraid I need to give comfort. Parents need to have their antennas up at all times they need to be sensitive and insightful.

AUTONOMY

And I’m always amazed that Eli went back to sleep! Now if I knew that God was talking to my son in the other room in an audible voice I wouldn’t be going back to sleep I’d have my ear pressed to the door I’d be eavesdropping but evidently Eli wanted Samuel to gain some autonomy. He wanted Samuel to develop his own intimacy in his own interaction with God. He didn’t want his relationship to be just a secondhand relationship through his parents he wanted to have his own interaction with God. That’s a wise parent. Eli knew when to take a hands-on approach but he also knew when to take his hands off. If God is giving you a second chance as a parent pay attention.

There’s one more point here for moms and dads to understand, raising children is a constant battle. Your kids are sinners. They’re little sinners. They are sinners by nature. It’s our primary job to curb their rebellion and to insist on their obedience, Eli failed to restrain his own kids and God brought judgment on his house forever.

But God is GRACIOUS!

Do not be discouraged my brothers, take heart, life is a journey of many steps. Let’s together ensure that our next steps take us closer to the throne of the KING.

Stand firm in Christ ,your brother in Christ,

Stanley