Straight Arrows - Pt 2

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. (Psalm 127:3-5 ESV). Today we continue with the second part of the arrow. An essential part of the crafting of an arrow is the fletching, or the feathers. They are always placed at the end of the shaft so that they may most effectively create drag when the arrow is in flight. This keeps the back end of the arrow behind the front end, which is pretty important! It also stabilizes the arrow as it flies to its target. An arrow without good fletching is undependable and dangerous. If an arrow has the right kind of feathers, properly installed, it will fly straight. I think of this as character. Character development is a major theme of God's work in people. And it's one of the major assignments God gives us as parents. Character is how your child responds to authority and life's circumstances. It is "response-ability," and comes as a result of training our children to submit to God and His Word. Character is defined as strength of moral fiber. A.W. Tozer described character as “the excellence of moral beings. As the excellence of gold is its purity and the excellence of art is its beauty, so the excellence of man is his character. People of character are noted for their honesty, ethics, and charity. Descriptions such as “man of principle” and “woman of integrity” are assertions of character. A lack of character is moral deficiency, and persons lacking character tend to behave dishonestly, unethically, and uncharitably.” A person’s character is the sum of their disposition, thoughts, intentions, desires, and actions. It is good to remember that character is gauged by general tendencies, not on the basis of a few isolated actions. We must look at the whole life. For example, King David was a man of good character (cf. 1 Samuel 13:14) although he sinned greatly on occasion (cf. 2 Samuel 11). And although King Ahab may have acted nobly once (cf. 1 Kings 22:35), he was still a man of overall bad character (cf. 1 Kings 16:33). Several people in the Bible are described as having noble character. Ruth was one of those people in the Scripture (cf. Ruth 3:11). No one can deny how much of an effect she had on the continued development and future of Israel. She was indeed a woman chosen for that time; however, she also had to do what she was called to do. Her life was characterized by persistent moral virtue. As we model this trait for our children we should not forget how much they look to us. They are always watching and listening to everything we say and do. Work toward more and more consistency in your life. That will make for straight feathers on your arrows!