It’s easy to get so focused on the thin slice of today– the discipline dilemma that arose at the breakfast table, the baseball tryouts that will determine our child’s place on the team, the report card that assigned a value to her academic endeavors, the shyness that is keeping him from making friends in the neighborhood– that we forget to see our children as God does, with an eternal perspective. I Samuel 16:7 reminds us: “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Today’s Scripture tells an amazing story from which every parent can learn. The Israelites’ chosen king Saul had failed to handle his royal position with integrity, so the Lord sent his servant Samuel packing towards Bethlehem to anoint a new king. “Fill your horn with oil,” He told the prophet, “and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.” However, if Samuel had relied on the parent’s point of view in this scenario, he would have overlooked one of the greatest kings in the history of God’s people.
In their book, Faith Shaped Kids, Authors Steve and Valerie Bell ask, “What was going through the parental side of Jesse’s mind that edited his son David out of the running for king? Did he think him too young? Did he consider him too odd, too different from the rest of his boys to even have a shot? Perhaps he wondered how a sensitive kid like David, who played the harp, could ever grow up to become a strong enough man to lead armies into battle someday. And his preoccupation with that crazy slingshot- what’s up with that? Or maybe David’s redheaded temperament worried his dad? Who Knows? ….There’s no question that this encounter with Samuel caused Jesse to see David in a whole new light. Perhaps, for the first time, Jesse was beginning to get the bigger picture that though this youngest son was different, his unique abilities and unusual interests were God given, a part of God’s plans that needed to be affirmed, explored, and developed”(126).
When was the last time you looked at your children and recognized their unique abilities and unusual interests as a part of God’s plans? Today, ask God for a glimpse of the “bigger picture” so that you might see your offspring’s unique bent through eternal eyes.
Parent’s Pondering: What parts of my children’s external make up can distract me from focusing on their hearts? Confess the sin of “looking at the things man looks at” rather than “looking at the heart” of your children. Ask for help to focus on what matters to God!
