DECORATE THEIR HEART

“And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

Revelation 21: 2 - 4

King James Version

Sometimes we spend a lot of time and money redecorating our children’s rooms.  Instead of using all of our energy, time, money and talents on decorating our children’s rooms, let’s invest them in our children’s lives and decorate their heart with the love of Jesus.  

We need to say tender loving words to our children every day so that the wallpaper of their heart will be decorated with joy and happiness.  We can take the money that we would spend on supplies for their room and spend it on things that will teach them about Jesus and His great love for them.

Our children will have pain, sorrow and heartaches as they face the obstacles, trials, crises and snares of this sinful world and the temptations of satan.  As much as we want to protect them from these things, we can’t give them the kind of help that they need.  Only Jesus can fight our children’s battles that they will have to endure in this world.  Let’s make sure that our children are ready to meet their Bridegroom when He comes back for us.  We should spend more time making sure that our children are adorned with the qualities that please Jesus than we do on decorating their rooms.

I know a lady who would not allow her son to read the Bible until he had finished all of his homework.  This mother will stand before a Holy God and give an account for that decision.  I don’t want to be her when Jesus returns for us and He looks at her and asks her why her son’s homework was more important to her than it was to tell her son about Him.

If we are spending more time helping our children with their homework from school than we are in helping them memorize verses from the Bible that will help them all of their lives, we have our priorities wrong and we are making Jesus very sad.

It is extremely important to take our children to Sunday School and church, not just send them.  Several years ago when I lived in Texas I had the privilege of being a bus captain on one of our church buses.  I would go visit everyone who rode the buses every Saturday and many of the parents would say to me “I’m so glad you are taking my children to church because now I can go back to bed and sleep while they are gone”.  How that statement must have hurt Jesus!

Sometimes we try to make our children become what we wanted to become.  A twelve year old girl went to visit her grandmother for two weeks and during that time the grandmother made her granddaughter take dancing lessons because she herself had always wanted to be a dancer.  The granddaughter hated the dancing lessons and finally told her grandmother that she hated dancing and that they never spent any time together or went any place together.

It will be impossible for us to decorate our children’s heart with the love of Jesus unless He has first decorated our own heart with His love.   You may have a personal relationship with Jesus; He may be your personal Saviour but have you allowed Him to decorate your heart with kindness, tenderness, understanding, compassion, mercy and forgiveness?

You will not be able to teach your children about Jesus unless they see and hear the kindness of Jesus in your actions and in your words.  What kind of example are you setting for your children?  Have you decorated your children’s heart with the unconditional and tender love of Jesus?

Joanne Lowe

May 21, 2019