The Bible says children are the heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is His reward (Psalm 127:3). In other words, God is the owner of children, and He gives them to whoever He pleases. Whenever God counts an individual worthy to have custody of His possession, the fellow should be careful of what he or she does with it. For this reason, through His word, God teaches us how to handle children as precious seeds kept in our care. One of His teachings on this all-important subject matter is found in Ephesians 6:4, where the Lord says we must train our children in His ways, not according to any other system.

1 Samuel 8:1-5 reveals the danger of not taking godly care of our children. As upright as Samuel was, he failed in the area of bringing up his children in the ways of the Lord. Concerning his sons, 1st Samuel 8:3 says:
“And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes and perverted judgment.”
The surprising aspect of this story is that Samuel witnessed how Eli and his household were cut off because Eli did not nurture his children in the ways of the Lord. Beloved, it is better a person does not bear a child than to have a child and fail to take godly care of him or her. Eli’s example shows that a heavy price accompanies failure in this regard.

The story was told of a mother who immersed herself into training her son to succeed academically and career-wise, but she neglected training in the fear of God and did not expose him to spiritual activities that could connect him to God. Meanwhile, the son progressed at school, graduated with good grades, and eventually got a good job in the city. Having tasted life in the city, he forgot his roots and did not keep in touch with his mother. One day, his mother decided to visit him in the city, having missed her son for a long time. When she got to her son’s house, she met the gate securely locked. She knocked for a long while before her son managed to open the window of his front room, and behold, it was his mother sweating in the African sun. “Mum, you did not tell me you were coming!” the young man yelled. He then threw a wad of cash at her and told her to go back to the village. This woman wept bitterly. How sad! This is what the wages of nursing a child for ourselves and not for God looks like. I pray that this will not be your portion as a parent in Jesus’ Name.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.