Psalm 127:1-4

“Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.2 In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat- for he grants sleep to those he loves. 3 Children are a heritage from the Lord offspring a reward from him. 4 Like arrows in the hands of warrior are children born in one’s youth. 5 Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court.” NASB

Sometimes it seems that we have forgotten that God gave us children to bless us and to give us a legacy for the future generations. This Psalm is a reminder that as parents it is our responsibility to bring up our children in the admonition of the Lord. Children were never meant to raise themselves. Many children today have no one to provide the structure of a loving home as God intended.

Deuteronomy 11:18-21 “You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals]on your forehead. 19 You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. 20 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens remain above the earth.

Our homes are to be a sanctuary for our families. God intended that our children were to be the future generation to lead the world to Jesus. Unless the Lord builds that home we labor in vain.

Someone wisely wrote, “No culture has ever been able to provide a better shipyard for building stormproof vessels for the journey of man from the cradle to the grave than the individual nourished in a loving family” (Laurens van der Post and Jane Taylor, Testament to the Bushmen, in Reader’s Digest [11/86], p. 76).

Isn’t that what God wants us to provide for our children? To have them be individuals that are nourished in a loving family in order that they will be able to withstand the storms of life should be our focus as parents.

Unless God is the center of that environment at home we labor in vain. All the money and things we believe they have to have will not enable us to withstand the forces that will come against our children and the family. We will be building our house on the sand. We all need to build our lives and our homes on a firm foundation. That solid foundation is the Word of God given by God the Father, Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

What are you building your house/home on? Will it survive the storms of life? Will your children be those who are nourished and guided by the promises of God in His Word?