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When Kirk and I helped move our daughter into her new house recently, we met her next door neighbors. Steve and Melonie and Wes moved into their new house just one week prior to Elisa’s move. They immediately came over to introduce themselves and said they were available if we needed anything.

And needed them…we did. Steve’s tools, coupled with Melonie’s hospitality, made Elisa’s move much easier than anticipated.

Steve and Melonie invited us over for dinner our last night there. They served us a delicious entrée of baked manicotti, which was to die for. However, the sweetest part of the evening was when Steve prayed asking the Lord to bless our food, and thanking God for answering their prayer for providing a neighbor that they could minister to. They definitely got their prayers answered on that one.

We suspected that Elisa’s new neighbors were born-again Christians since they were so gracious and kind. But as you know, not all gracious and kind people are born-again Christians—just like not all born-again Christians are gracious and kind. But as we got to know them more intimately that night, our assumptions were confirmed.

During the evening, our conversation turned toward the awesome responsibility that Christian parents have to train their children to love the Lord. Since Steve and Melonie have an only child like Kirk and I, we understand all too well that we only have one shot at this.

A book that I recently read vividly spoke about this. The author made the contrast between two families. One family who took their God-given responsibility seriously, versus another family who ignored God’s heeding when He entrusted human lives to their care. This is what it stated:

A godly preacher named Jonathon Edwards knelt with his wife Sarah by their bed on their wedding day and committed their future ministry, their children and their unborn generations to God. His family produced over 1400 children: 13 were college presidents; 65 were University Professors; over 100 were lawyers; several were deans of law school; 3 judges; 56 physicians; 80 holders of public offices and over 100 went into the mission field.

Another study in 1875 (about the same time as Jonathon Edwards) was made of the Jukes. They lived together without being married and disdained all morals. They had no ethics and broke every tradition, living totally godless lives for the material and physical pleasures of the moment. They had no need for Jesus Christ. Through their generations the Jukes family was a cesspool of crime, immorality, poverty, and disease.

That family cost New York $1,500,000 in welfare payments alone and did not produce a single decent person. The Edwards family committal to the Lord was blessed while everything the Jukes family touched was cursed. (Excerpt taken from: The Sins of the Fathers, by Pastor Win Worley; page 22)

Is it any wonder why God says in Proverbs 22:6: Train up a child in the way he should go, so when he is old he will not depart.

Our training with Elisa is now over. We had 22 short years of spiritual boot camp with her. But now that our daughter is in the trenches of life, I know she is grateful for the training that she received, even though it was hard at times on all of us.

However, I did take advantage of our time together in August to teach Elisa one more thing. It was a “new homeowner” tip. And it went something like this: Hey Steve, can I borrow….?

God shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children

and the heart of the children to the fathers.

Malachi 4:6

"'Christ in You...'" from Dale Krebbs

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