Back in November I revisited a blog post that has somehow received, by far, the most amount of views out of anything I have written. I revisited it for two reasons, one it is my most popular post, and two it was about to become much more relevant in my own life. If you are a new reader the post is about prophesying blessing over our children and you can read both posts in the following links:
Prophesy Blessing Over Your Children
Revisited
Today I read a post on www.desiringgod.com that gives a unique idea into how to do this. I want to encourage all the fathers, all the dads, to go here, and to seriously consider the idea presented.
In case you really don't want to go to the link, or the link doesn't work, let me summarize the idea for you. We have all heard preachers discuss the merits of writing in our Bibles, but we always here about doing it for ourselves, for our own study. This writer, Jonathan Parnell, gives the idea of doing it for our kids. He suggests that to do this well we would need to take about ten years.
Think about it. You, as a father, as the spiritual head of your house, buy a fresh Bible and take ten years to read through it and ask God for words specifically for your child. Your child would receive ten years of prophetic words straight from his or her father. Can you imagine the impact that would have? Maybe you start when they are newborn and you give it to them on their tenth birthday, or maybe you wait and give it as a graduation gift. Possibly your kids are already grown, it's not too late to do a project like this.
In the article Parnell mentions that most of us aren't going to do anything remarkable, but being a father is remarkable in itself. To your children you are the most remarkable man in the world and one of the two most remarkable people.
It didn't take me long to decide that this is something I want to do, something I need to do, for my baby girl. All I need to do is pray over the details. May God inspire more of you fathers to do this, or something similar, for your children.
This is a great idea. It is important to leave our kids with something that they can hold onto and reaffirm them through scripture. Create something like this, because it will be a great help to your child, but don't forget to teach them how to study the Word for themselves. Study it with them. Teach them to leave notes in their bible based on the Spirit speaking to them.
ReplyDeleteThat is a great point Terence. As valuable as a gift like this would be for our kids it doesn't come close to the value of them learning to study the Word on their own.
ReplyDeleteI think this is great because I have said so many things to my kids, and all I remember of it was, wow that was such a great discussion we just had, it would be great to make a note of it next to the scripture referenced.
ReplyDeleteGreat point Steve! This will be a great resource for them down the road to reference.
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