Three vital ingredients are necessary to make any parent successful in the task of nurturing children as precious gifts from God. These are knowledge, understanding and godliness. Unfortunately, many people who are privileged to be parents do not have what it takes to effectively fulfil their responsibilities. Parents need the type of knowledge that is found only in God’s word to carry out their parental responsibilities in line with God’s expectations. Speaking on the significance of children in our lives, Psalm 127:3 says:
“Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.”
Parents need to understand that through procreation, God gets His reward for all the care He has bestowed on them from the time they were born! In other words, because of human reproduction, God does not need to repeatedly go through the process of moulding clay to create new generations of worshippers that He desires. Children are God’s reward, so nobody should attempt to share His glory with Him over them. Parents must stop “playing God” over their children; rather, they should nurture them to meet God’s expectations, according to Ephesians 6:4.

1 Samuel 22:1-2 tells an interesting story of “abandoned children”, who were once social miscreants, identifying with a man who had the heart of a father to take them in. It is equally interesting that this man, David, was also a fugitive. He was on the run because a jealous king wanted to kill him. David did not discard those boys; rather, he nurtured them to become useful for themselves, their families and the society at large. In Nigerian street parlance, he became the “area father” of about four hundred “area boys” who became soldiers for the nation of Israel when he became king. Here is a roll call of a few of them and their exploits in 2nd Samuel 23:8-10:
“These be the names of the mighty men whom David had: The Tachmonite that sat in the seat, chief among the captains; the same was Adino the Eznite: he lift up his spear against eight hundred, whom he slew at one time. And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines that were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away: He arose, and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clave unto the sword: and the LORD wrought a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to spoil.”
From their example, let us learn to nurture and train our biological and spiritual children to the point of fulfilling their destinies. When we develop them like David did with the abandoned vagabonds, they will go on to become useful assets for God and humanity in the near future.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.