Straight Arrows - Pt 4

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). The last part of the construction of an arrow that will be a part of this deadly arsenal for the defense of our city is the arrow’s broad head, or point. Our finely-crafted arrow is nearly complete. Only the front end of the shaft needs a finishing touch. The point of the arrow reminds us of the last essential quality we want to craft in a child. We all need a mission; we need a reason to live, a driving passion or calling that provides meaning and impact. We need to ask ourselves, "Have I more passion for the values of this world's system than for the things of God? What are my goals in life? Are they ones I want my child to copy?" Every child should be helped to understand that life is a dynamic relationship with God that overflows in love to other people; it is this love that the Holy Spirit uses to reconcile the lost to God. Everything else, as good or innocuous as it may be, is only a prop to facilitating this mission. I think most of us know what it means to be intentional. But we struggle with making that a reality for our lives. The day to day living is consuming. It’s easy to derail if our attention is myopically focused only on the here and now because we lose sight of the big picture. We can only complete strong arrows by being intentional. This means we set goals with the end in view. When I taught Aaron to drive, it was my desire to equip him to drive a manual transmission. I did the same with both Kyle and David. We took the truck to an empty parking lot and went through all the steps before ever turning the ignition on and starting the engine. However, I also knew that learning to drive with a manual transmission was not the end. The end of the lesson was to learn how to safely drive a vehicle. That necessitated teaching the need to focus on the road ahead. If that principle is ignored the focus would be drawn to the immediate space in front of the car and the driving would be erratic. The application is clear for our parenting. When we become hyper-focused on the daily to the exclusion of everything else, we lose sight of long term perspective. We become susceptible to every idea that’s out there and our family life becomes a series of swerves. Advance progress slows to a crawl. If we don’t snap out of this tunnel vision we can easily get to the end of our children’s childhood and look up to realize that we didn’t progress very far or worse, we are going in the wrong direction. As parents we are the keepers of the BIG PICTURE! This is the way to put a sharp, deadly point on the arrow.