Parents and Children, Heart to Heart
Yesterday I shared a portion of Psalm 139, David’s beautiful psalm about how intimately God knows us. When we have concerns or worries or troubles, it is easy to feel very lonely. It is a great comfort to know that you and I have a loving Father who is “intimately acquainted with all my ways” (verse 3). He knows when we sit down and when we stand up. He knows our thoughts and understands them—even the ones that we don’t understand ourselves.
I love that God teaches us that He is our Father. The relationship between God as our Father and us as His children has much to teach us about the richness of our own relationships with our children and with our parents.
Family is deeply important to our Father. The last words of the Old Testament are about family.
Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.Â
He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children
and the hearts of the children to their fathers,
so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.
Malachi 4:5-6
At the beginning of the New Testament, an angel told the elderly Zacharias that he and his elderly wife, Elizabeth, would have a baby. The angel said this about their child (who would be known as John the Baptist):
It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him
in the spirit and power of Elijah,Â
to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children,
and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous,
so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
Luke 1:17
One of the many blessings of Jesus coming (and of his forerunner John the Baptist coming) is that parents’ and children’s hearts would turn toward each other. I believe that the details about our relationship with God our Father that are found in Psalm 139 have much to teach us about our relationships with our own children and with our parents.
I want my children to know that one result of their having children of their own is that they now have an idea of how much I love them. Psalm 139 gives us a picture of how much our Father loves us. I encourage you to read through Psalm 139 sometime this weekend. As you do:
- Relish the knowledge of how well God knows you and how much He loves you.
- Learn new ways to know and love your own children. Ask yourself: “How can I better turn my heart to my children?”
- Consider ways you can become closer to your own parents if you are still blessed to have them with you. Ask yourself: “How can I better turn my heart to my parents?”
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.
When I awake, I am still with You.
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.
Psalm 139:17-18; 23-24