by Elder Mike Chon
“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.” Psalm 127:3. In these times, children are usually looked upon as commodities, assets, as a goal in life, an inconvenience, a mistake, or a nuisance. God’s Word tells us that children are a heritage or gift from the Lord. It is the blessing of God that He would provide children to come into this life. Not only that but later in verse 5, God’s Word tells us that the father is blessed to have more children. “Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!” Like so many things in our life, Scripture is contrary to what the world would define as “blessed”. Usually when I tell someone about our family and how we had three kids under three years of age at one point, they usually say that I’m crazy and ask if I know how babies are formed. Sometimes I wonder if I missed that lesson in biology. But all kidding aside, there are many days that I wonder how I am blessed. (Please see my last article in the Beacon for examples.) Parenting is definitely a challenge but at the same time I am learning and realizing the truth of God’s Word that I am truly “blessed”.
One day as I returned home with the kids, my oldest was taking time getting out of the car. Then he took time getting into the house from the garage. He was intentionally stalling for no good reason. So as my patience was running out, my voice began to raise and become very stern. Then I found myself yelling, “You better get in the house right now!” At that instant, my son looked up at me and said, “Don’t talk to me that way!” This was the moment of truth. I could of allowed my pride, my anger, my frustration to lead me to discipline my son for speaking back at dad, but instead I realized the truth of his statement which revealed to me my sinful heart at that moment. I took my son aside and gave him a big hug and asked him to forgive me. As always, he was quick to forgive. My three year old son took the truth of Scripture, that out of the heart a man speaks (Luke 6:43-45), and rebuked me for being a hypocrite. Then again I realized how “blessed” I truly am to have a son that would reveal my sin to me and cause me to seek holiness in my life.
In our everyday lives we are faced with numerous trials and difficulties that come from life. Whether it is a death of a loved one, being laid off of work, not being able to find work, feeling lonely, physical pain, being unfairly treated, and the list goes on and on. What the world would see as a bad luck or worse, that “karma” is at work, God says that we are blessed. (1 Peter 3:14) All the trials of life are there to bring us to a deeper and closer relationship with God. (James 1:2-4) No matter how difficult the situation is and how hopeless at times it may appear, we must trust in the Word of God that we are truly blessed. Some of us are walking through the darkest and most difficult times of our lives. We look at Scripture and think that there is no way this could be a blessing. Only when we take our eyes off of our circumstance and off of the things that we physically can see and feel can we begin to see the great spiritual truth behind the Words of God. We begin to trust in the God that did not spare His own Son for us. We begin to trust in the world to come and not in the world that we live in. We begin to trust that life here is truly a vapor. We begin to trust that life is more than living comfortably or as expected. We begin to trust that God is truly good. We begin to trust that my spiritual life is more important than my physical.
If I were to just look at my kids and only see the challenges they bring, I would be like the rest of the world and see children as an inconvenience to my life. But instead, if I understand the purposes that God has for my children, to make me holy, I can find encouragement in knowing that through the most difficult moments God is changing my heart to be more Christ-like if I trust in Him and His Word. Likewise, our trials are in our life for a reason, and that is to make us holy. So if you are facing difficult times at this moment, the question to ask, is not “How am I coping?” or “How am I dealing with the problem?” but instead it should be “What is God teaching me through this trial?” “How is God changing my heart to be more holy?” May we look beyond what we see and feel and trust in the good God that is sovereign over all things, who desires His children to be holy (1 Peter 1:15-16), and say in our hearts that we are truly “blessed.”