I did an announcement that Ryan, no, two weeks ago, no, it was last week. Ryan taught on officers last week. I know why I thought two weeks, because I made that announcement, so I thought that was the week before, but I announced that we were finished the Apostles Creed class, and that we were having a special class, and I neglected to announce, what I did announce in June, if you have a very good memory, was that we're going back to five weeks on the Christian family. And because we did not finish that class in the spring. And so we're going to be doing a little bit of review. on that topic. And as I look around, we don't have as many parents of young children as we might have if I had announced. But if you're older, you can pass this on to your families because it's going to be a topic that would be pertinent to younger families. We also have this recorded and online so that hopefully will be also of some help. Just one note about the life of the church this week, and we'll announce it again before worship, our midweek prayer meeting will not be happening. Thanksgiving week, we usually slow down the schedule, much like a fifth Wednesday, so just a quick note, Wednesday night, no activities, and we will pick it up again the following week. Let's pray. Lord our God, You've woken us again to a new day and we are thankful for this. We are thankful for life and for much more than physical life, the abundant life and freedom and liberty that is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord. We pray that you would Help us now as we turn to your word, as we consider the Christian home and the care of children. And we pray that as we learn these things, you would also give us the mindfulness to remember your words, Lord Jesus, that unless we become like a little child, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Lord, we then pray that what we learn would be useful to all of us as we think of your condescending mercy and love towards helpless sinners such as we are by nature. Lord, we thank you for your love and mercy in Christ, and it is in that hope we pray to you. Amen. Well, before we begin, I would like to read just two short passages from the scriptures. that will set the tone for a larger theme, the theme of the church's care and the Christian family's care of young children. The two passages that come to mind, the first one is from the Psalms, and the second one is from Matthew 18, which I just quoted briefly in prayer, but I would like to read them. Psalm 131, and then Matthew chapter 18. And I would like to read them to remind us all that the template that we have in the Christian home and family is a template from which we learn about what it is to belong to Christ and to be in the family of God. Our natural families, do not last forever. Even the bond that forms a household, our Savior says in Matthew chapter 22, in heaven will be different. Will be like the angels who neither marry nor are given in marriage. And that the The primary picture of our relationship to God, I think Sinclair Ferguson loves to say this in his teaching, is the picture of a family, in which we are brothers and sisters, Christ is our elder brother, and God is our father. And actually another quote from Sinclair Ferguson, who has a profoundly helpful book on the Holy Spirit, a conference years ago, without doing any category, making any category mistakes in how we address the Lord. You did note that the Holy Spirit's work as the one who in the Gospel of John makes our heart a home for the Father and the Son, he actually has called the Holy Spirit the divine homemaker. The one who orders and makes new the heart so that it would be that home for the Father and the Son. As Christ said, we will come to Him and make our home with Him. And that there are these connections in the families in which we live that are rooted in greater and eternal realities. And in this way, I hope, all that we learn this morning about the care of children would remind us of our place in relation to God as children, and secondly, of his tender mercy towards us. And in that regard, actually, I think of maybe a third passage I'll read in a moment, but first from Psalm 131. I remind you that this is David, the warrior king, who in his own right on the earth was a man of power and influence and greatly blessed by the Lord. And I want you to think about that, his office and special place in history, and when he thinks about his relation to God, how he conceives of himself. Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty. Neither do I concern myself with great matters, nor with things too profound for me. Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother. Like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forever. And so you have this mighty king when he sees a little child in the arms of his mother, her mother, he says, that's what I am like before the Lord, which would be instructive to us to think about how we are before the Lord. That made me think of another phrase in the Psalms that's worth reading in regard to this. That's David's view of himself. How about David's view of the Lord? He says this in Psalm 103. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him, for he knows our frame. He remembers we are dust. So David, already in the Old Testament, has this profound understanding of himself as a child in the kingdom and the Lord as a father who pities his children. And that should be instructive for fathers to pity their children. And then Matthew chapter 18. At that time, the disciples came to Jesus saying, who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Then Jesus called a little child to him and set him in the midst of them and said, assuredly I say to you, unless you are converted, and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in my name receives me." So that's a little bit of background before we turn to the subject matter for today, and I hope that that will help make it pertinent to all of us. And the topic that I would like to consider today is the care of young children. A little bit of review from what we have discussed in this class, I'll go through a few things. We have talked about the Bible's teaching regarding the household. We have examples in the scriptures, a gathering of individuals under the master of the house. At the core of that house is a marriage between a husband and wife. We have the first picture, the first family is Adam and Eve and their children. A marriage plus a central command, be fruitful and multiply. And the most basic natural category of the family is that. Again, marriage plus the multiplication of children. And we have families all through the scriptures and we see that God works through families. We think of Noah and his wife, his sons and his sons' wives in the ark. Noah prepared an ark, the writer to the Hebrews says, for the saving of his household. Abraham, we see in covenant revelation, there is a greater development of the theology of the household. He had to leave a house, Terah's house, and he formed his own unique household, and God established his covenant with Abraham and his descendants after him. His household did not just consist of him and his physical descendants, but all those under his care, and including those who were bought with money or born in his house or born of him, later Ishmael and then later yet Isaac. This household was then visited with God in covenant mercies. In Genesis 18 and verse 19, the Lord said, I chose him, I chose Abraham, that he would instruct his children and his household after him in the way of the covenant to do righteousness and justice. The picture of a household continues in a broader sense when the Lord says to David, I will make you a house. And this was in contrast to the physical temple that David wanted to build. The Lord was gonna make him a royal dynasty. And this is where the language of house and household and lineage begins to broaden even more notably in the Old Testament to the promise of Christ, the elder brother, and we as brothers and sisters in him and under God. But the idea of God's making households, that natural household being a picture of something greater in redemption, just like marriage is, runs through the scriptures. This is also why the family remains the fundamental building block of human society as a creation ordinance. It's important in creation, and it is a picture, in so many ways, of redemption. And the household idea remains central to our Savior's thinking. For example, in Luke 19, as he says to Zacchaeus, salvation has come to this house, it remains central to the apostle Peter when he preaches on Pentecost, the promises to you and your children, and all that are far off, it remains central to Paul's thinking. in Acts 16, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household, in the household codes in Paul's epistles, which are very much patterned after the Abrahamic promises. And in Peter, also in 1 Peter 2. And so this reminds us that the household is important. We've looked at marriage, and that's what we did. We looked at God's dealings with households rather than we looked at marriage, at the heart of a household. A Christian marriage, and I would remind you parents that the most important gift you probably can give your children is harmony between husband and wife. A loving relationship between husband and wife is a great gift you can give to your children. It's a picture of the gospel. Then we looked at be fruitful and multiply, and a couple things there. We talked about life in the womb, and we talked about a whole lot of questions that I was asked. And what I want to move on now to is the care of infant life, the care of our little ones. And I, would like to talk a little bit about that, basically from birth onward. Well, maybe a little bit from the womb. I have some quotes from William Goode, a Puritan, who wrote a book called Domestical Duties, and he had something very interesting to say about this. I want to talk about the care of very young life. And again, if you don't have young children at home, you should be learning from the passages I read at the beginning. This would describe you and the Lord's care for you. In Titus chapter two and verse four, as Pastor Mooney preached from just a few weeks ago, there's an interesting command. And the command is that older women would teach younger women to do two things. Anyone remember what those two things are? We'll review, see if you're awake. I don't mind long pauses for you to look up Titus 2.4 and tell me. Love their husbands, yep, and? Love their children. Interesting command, isn't it? On the island of Crete, one of the problems was, men had problems, we see that older men had to teach the younger men to be sober-minded and other things, but the older women had to teach the younger women to love their husbands and love their children. Why do you think Paul would have to say something like that? Because they didn't. Isn't that interesting? We instinctively think that mothers love children. What the scriptures say is that sin even breaks the most basic of natural bonds and could require the teaching the requisite teaching of mothers to learn how to love children. It's very interesting. And the older women are to be engaged in this ministry to the younger women, as well as loving husbands. And maybe that one's not as surprising to us, because we've all seen some hard marriages where that love is not reciprocated back and forth. But the idea of parents not loving children, instinctively, and that this is recognized in the scripture should give us some pause. What's the most obvious example of this in our culture? Maybe the most glaring example, sinful example. I'm thinking of something, a scourge on our nation. Abortion. That upon hearing the news of helpless new little life, that a mother could make a decision to kill her child. And that a man, very often, behind that decision, pushing for it. That there's the entirely opposite response of Christian love. Again, you would think this is natural, but many parents are harsh and impatient and cruel, even with very young children. I think I said this at the end of the last lesson I taught. Have you ever heard of shaken baby syndrome? Anyone heard of that? That was another thing where you would take a new little infant that's crying too much, and you would shake that child because that crying bothers you. And we could just keep going through childhood and we could see that the ravages of sin have broken these most fundamental bonds. And that we can be very hurtful by nature towards even little ones. But even Christians are tempted. I have seen parents resent the change of life. that children bring, an endless drain of your resources, your money, your time, your sleep, and everything else. If you have a child in your home, it is a redirection of your life. And there's a little phrase, I think I mentioned this in the spring, I just need some me time. which I don't like. It's one thing to say I'm really tired and I could use some rest, that's good. But when you put it in the category of me time, me versus my child, that's not a category to even begin to think about. We should be servants of our children in profound ways, and especially when they're little. It's not wrong to get some rest, but this little life depends completely on mother and father. And Paul saw the effects of sin to include a lack of understanding on how to love children and cherish them. The same is also true with fathers. If we turn to Ephesians, actually Colossians and Ephesians, you see that fathers are instructed in the same way. Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. That there's something in fathers because of our sinfulness would make it easy for us to be harsh. Fathers, do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged. And all of us here, fathers, mothers, or grandparents, we could apply to grandparents too, should have a generous disposition towards our little ones, fathers and mothers. The scriptures, in their language of correcting these sins, should teach us to be mindful and self-reflective on how we care for life, and especially our own children. I have some notes here from William Gouge, the Puritan. And he says something interesting. This is actually, he's talking about infancy. And let me read a little bit of how one of our Puritan forebears thought about these duties. The first part of a child's infancy, he's talking about taking care of infants, is while it remains in the mother's womb. Hence, therefore, the duty lies principally at this point upon the mother, who, as soon as she perceives a child to be conceived in her womb, ought to have an especial care thereof, so that, as much as in her lies, children may be safely brought forth. He goes on to write, the heathen philosopher, by the light of nature, observed this to be a duty and prescribed it to mothers. A mother must therefore have tender care over herself when she is with child, for the child being lodged in her receives nourishment from her as plants from the earth. Her well-being tends much to the good and safety of the child, but the hurt that comes to her makes the child the worst, if it not be a means to destroy it. Why then was the charge of abstaining from wine, strong drink, and unclean things in Judges 13 given to Manoah's wife, but because of the child which we conceived? In this case, there is a double bond to make mothers careful of themselves. Their own good and their child's good should be much in their mind as they carry little infants. That's a Puritan quote. That's a pretty detailed application of the scripture in a high view of the care of life. Then he goes on to address husbands in the same time. Husbands also in this case must be very tender over their wives and helpful to them in all things needful, both in regard of that duty they owe to their wives and now also to their wife with child. Why was Manoah, he goes back to Judges 13 in the announcement of Samson's birth, why was Manoah so desirous to hear himself the direction which the angel gave to his wife? Why did the angel repeat it again to him? but to show that it belonged to him to help her observe it. Then he goes on to say, the care of life in the womb is a paramount Christian duty. So this is the 1600s, this is a Puritan, and you'll notice some language here that will tell you that our present debates, for example, over the scourge of abortion, it's nothing new under the sun, it was there in the Roman Empire, it was there in the Puritan era, it's here today. They who through violence of passion Whether grief or anger, or through violent motion of the body, as by dancing, striving, running, galloping on horseback, or the like, listen to what he says, he gets right into details, or through distemper of the body, by eating things hurtful, eating too much, by too much abstinence, too much bashfulness in concealing their desires and longings as we speak, cause any abortion or miscarriage, they fall into the offenses contrary to the aforementioned duty to cherish life. Isn't that interesting? A very intense view of this marriage bond, husband and wife, be fruitful and multiply, and life is given. Infant life is to be cared for. Then he goes on to say, if women were persuaded that in their conscience they are bound to this duty, they would be, I think, be more careful of themselves. They ought to be careful that not through their default they harm their child. In this way, they would be guilty of the blood of their child, at least in the court of the conscience of God. But they who purposely take things away to make their children in their womb, and he's now saying people who intentionally try to hurt life in the womb by, let's say, withholding something that they would need for their health, would be guilty, yea, even of willful murder, for that which has received A soul formed in it by God, if it be unjustly cast away, shall be revenged. And so far forth as husbands are careless of their wives, being with child, denying them anything needful for life, they become guilty of the same hurt, which the woman or the child takes. the hurt that comes to the woman or the child by their neglect, and they are guilty of this sin and liable to the judgment of God. It's, again, very interesting, a notable Puritan, forebear, who had very plain things to say about life in the womb, and also about the care of the youngest life, that this is part of Christian duty. I want to go beyond the womb and talk a little bit about the first year of life and think about some principles for child rearing. And again, let me just double check what the time is because I have a tendency to go long. I have six principles and let's see if I can get through them in a decent amount of time. I think I can. Some principles to live by if God gives new life. With Titus 2 in mind, here are some thoughts. The first thing is that it will be hard if God gives children. The gift of a child requires you to be profoundly other-centered. It'll call for weariness and endurance through weariness, and is often difficult body and soul. We live in a fallen world, and one of the key elements in the curse was in sorrow, you shall bring forth children. We do far better thinking realistically than sentimentally. America, I am more and more convinced, has become a profoundly sentimental and emotional country, rather than a principled country. Sentimental and emotional rather than principled. This week I was in a session meeting with another session. I was asked to help a session in our presbytery with a matter, and there were accusations being brought I quickly realized that these accusations were not factual, but they were all sentimental. This is how you made me feel. Not, this is what happened. This is how I feel about it. And we're in an age where that's all that seems to matter. The objective truth of events is cast away, and the deep sentimentality of our age has taken over. We often think this about child-rearing and the gift of a child. And America, I would say, has become soft, both men and women. I think about the couples who settled our frontier. Wow. The amount of labor and hardship that they went through to bear and raise children. We were at the South Carolina Botanical Garden in Clemson. Anyone been there? The Botanical Garden? And there's a little cabin along a little creek. That cabin, I can't remember who owned it, but it's an example cabin, and we weren't able to get into it last time, but I read the plaque, and you can look in the windows, I mean, there's one big room downstairs, and then there's a loft upstairs. And I think they had 12 kids in there. I was like, I mean, we have nine kids, but 12, we have a house with air conditioning, and washing machines, and dryers, and we can go on vacations, and all kinds of things. They just had like a fireplace, And no running water and no bathroom. And they raised 12 children in there. What kind of work would that take? But they did it and that's why we have the country. It seems today with all of our luxuries, we've forgotten how to work. And we are very good at feeling sorry for ourselves. If the Lord gives you a child, I want you to imagine the hardest thing you've ever done. and then do it nonstop for 18 to 20 years. That's basically child rearing. I see some parents and grandparents smiling, and they're agreeing quietly. Hearts. And it doesn't get easier, actually, as years go on. That's the encouragement from this class. You'll see it later, the next weeks, as we get to the other ages. It doesn't get easier as the years go on. It still is on your heart. But it doesn't have any breaks, and the physical labor turns into the spiritual care. And then if you have grandchildren, you know this, now you're praying about your grandchildren. And there's so much joy in it, but we need to get away from the idea that it's just an Instagram picture. It is, you know, cut off Instagram, please, social media. Every week it drives me more crazy. But it's fueling a narcissism and self-centeredness that makes it impossible to get anything done. It can be used well, people can always come after me, then please use it well, but not many people do. We need to be realistic. If the Lord gives you a child, he's giving you work and a lifetime of work. The temptation to self-centeredness is evident. I said to Emma a few weeks ago, must have been a few months ago now, I came into the den at her house and she was taking care of little Josiah, and I said, Emma, I think you might be the first child who now understands your mom and dad to some degree. It's not until you have your own child. I still go back. My father passed away years ago now, and I can still tell this to my mother. I wish I could tell my dad. Some of you maybe think this. I wish I had never put you through the things I put you through. I didn't know how much of your heart was bound up in my life. I just didn't understand. The temptation to self-centeredness is evident. Child rearing from the first moment requires time, effort, pain, labor, sleeplessness, and uncertainty. And if there's any teenagers here, I want you to remember this. You don't remember what your parents did to care for you. You don't know. It's something that, in God's providence, you don't remember those first years. Your parents do, and they labored for you. and honor them as you remember that. Second thing, not only hard work, God made us to work and he made the world in this way that we are to labor. And that labor is used and blessed by God, Lord established the work of our hands, Psalm 90, to bring good things to us. He blesses it. This labor is not simply arduous and bitter, and it is in some ways because of the curse, but many don't choose the best things just because they are hard things. In our culture, I believe that one of the fundamental reasons people don't want children is because they're selfish. That's a hard thing to say. They're unwilling to die to sell for others. And that goes right back to our fundamental, our massive sin in our culture, which is abortion, because that would be too hard for me. That's really what it boils down to. And it's a cruelty. But I want to encourage you that in God's economy, he calls us to work. He promises to crown the labors of our hands with his blessing and not leave us alone in that work. And then, In that, the reward far exceeds the labor. As a matter of fact, this is why we live by faith, Psalm 127, children are a heritage from the Lord. So we believe that. Again, first, it's hard work. Second, the scriptures teach that good things come by hard work. Third, it provides privileges each new day. really beyond my ability as a father to fully describe or rightly thank God for. And I would be happy to be very personal right now, and I think Loralee would agree with me, we're a bit older now and we have little Miriam, and we're a little more reflective. You just watch this slipping away. in one sense, and every new day is so full of wonder and joy as you see a little one develop. It's hard to get enough of it. Last night, actually, she was FaceTiming Peter Jr. And she can't really talk, but she can say his name. And she was holding the iPad and walking around like this and trying to blow him kisses and saying his name. And you just see her growing up and communing with a sibling and all of these gifts each new day. She's learning to talk and communicate. And we have privileges of watching this growth and development. And even when it doesn't go as we would hope, then we have another privilege. How about this privilege? The privilege of taking care of a needy child when they're sick. I actually like getting up in the middle of the night. Now, I'm not very good at it. Orly knows this. But if I hear Miriam crying, sometimes, well, Lurly knows this, sometimes I will jump up to get her if I hear it. I will jump up to get her because I just know she's in need. And all she needs is someone to pick her up and give her a hug. It is somewhat disappointing that at this point in her life, I get all the way to her room, she puts up her little arms, looks at me, and she says, Mama. every single time. That's not really disappointing. I've learned that my task in life at this point is to be a human conveyor belt, and I'm quite content with that. We have the privilege of caring for them, of giving them their heart's desires, if those desires are good, when they're sick, to hold them in our arms. or more soberly to take them perhaps to the doctor and wait. We have the privilege, Laura Lee and I, of sharing this joy together. And that joy is a huge part of the first year of life. Again, parents, I want to press this on you. Sometimes I see parents with an infant and they're like, I can hardly wait till this is over. I don't think that's, I understand if you're tired and worn that you want rest. That's okay. The Lord knows how weary we get. But don't be eager to leave this behind too quickly. It will be gone quickly. It is something that you can enjoy. Fourth, as you see little children, and this is for all Christians, and this is how I started, meditate on God's love and patience with you. Love for and patience with you. Our confession says that the distance between God and the creature is so great that unless by some act of voluntary condescension on his part, we would have no true knowledge of him, no fruition of him as our blessedness and reward, that God, back to Psalm 103, as a father, pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him." And again, parents and grandparents, if you're grandparents, you see little ones again. And this is something that I think it took me far too long to learn, but the scriptures call us children. How does John love to address the church? The apostle John, the apostle who talks so much of the love of God, when he turns to the church, he says, my children, my little children. This is a term of endearment. And there's something built into this. These meditations on the condescending love and mercy of God for you should help you think about little ones. Think about, for example, their helpless and needy condition. Again, the privilege of each stage which passes so quickly, but their neediness. is a privilege for you to serve and to show the love of God to them. If we are to learn from the love of a father, a natural father, about the love of God, then there's something high in that about the love of parents for children. In other words, the only way this analogy works, as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him, is if we're those who pity. And we're those who are very conscious as Christians to say, as God has loved me in Christ, so help me love this little helpless one. For I am helpless and needy. Ask yourself this question when you're tired or when God calls you to serve again. Is there anything analogous in God that he would not care for me? Does he care for new Christians, what we could call baby Christians? Does he care for new believers? Does he care for me after years of me acting like a child spiritually? Does he ever say to you in Christ, you're just too much work, or no longer, I need time away from you? No, the Lord would never, he never thinks this way about his people. He pities his children. Now here's something that is important to remember next. You, at your most maybe impatient and lowest moments with your children, when you become impatient with them, you often forget that at that moment you're often worse than your child. What I mean by that, if you're angry or impatient with a needy person, just a needy person, I guess it's too much, You are being willfully rebellious, and that's far more unpleasant than a needy infant, and God is patient with you. You are learning in some small and faint way what Christ did to undergo for your poor sake, and you are to echo that and be willing to count yourself of no reputation and take the form of a bond servant, and that's the life you've been given. the privilege of Christ-like service. Meditate on God's love and patience for you. Number five, think about Christ's own conscious response to little ones. And I want to turn to Matthew 19, very familiar. Then little children were brought to him that he might place his hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. Jesus said, let the little children come to me and do not forbid them for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on them and departed from there. This section of the scriptures in the Gospel of Mark, we read that Jesus was actually indignant, a parallel passage, indignant with his disciples, that they would be, that they would put a barrier between him and the littlest ones in Israel. Instead, we have this invitation. He says, let them come to me, do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven, powerful statement of Christ's disposition before children, and a fundamentally important text for our understanding of God's covenant mercy through the generations. Then he laid his hands on them and departed from there. And he held them, he touched them, he embraced them, and he blessed them. and this should be our disposition to little ones. Sixth, your example and your labor teaches the love of God even to your infant. This kind of self-emptying care is rooted in the love of God for sinners. This is why when Paul writes to Titus to teach the older women, teach the younger women to love their husbands and their children, that love is not just any love, but it's Christian love. It's Christian love. The Lord is the one who looks upon even the littlest ones. Psalm 22, it's a messianic psalm, but listen to this language. You are he who took me out of the womb. You made me trust while on my mother's breasts. I was cast upon you from birth, from my mother's womb, for you have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near and there is none to help. And Christ's conception of his own mother's care and God's care of him through her is profound. Again, this kind of love should be communicated to our children. Guj would say from the womb, in that language, old Puritan, and then through infancy. And the question that you should say, and you can insert the name of your own child, but oh, that I would love, for example, Miriam, as God has loved me. So that she might know something of the love of God in Christ for sinners. And even before she can speak, that that disposition would be made known to her. That I would be, interested in her knowing something of the servant love of Christ through Orly and I serving her. A new commandment I give to you, Jesus says, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you so also love one another. And that came on the Heals of the foot washing, and Jesus said, I do this as an example, and I wanna encourage you mothers, and this is actually very practical, that when you take your little baby and place them into the tub and make them clean, it is in these simple acts, empowered by the Holy Spirit, with the gospel in your heart and mind, that you can begin to teach the love of God, even to a little one, in your care. We communicate this love to our littlest ones. We communicate the love of God to Christ in the world when we talk about our children. we should stop complaining about them, and we should start praying for them and caring for them. Again, for these reasons, I counted amongst my life's greatest privileges, and I know many of you do as parents, to have, for example, little Miriam in my arms each day. And I pray that God would teach me to be a better parent and more closely reflect the love of God in Christ. I know that even in our sanctification, I could say that some of these ideas, as fully developed as they are in this class, I did not think about when we had our first child. We just had a child, and we were in the middle of that storm, and we were just learning everything on the fly. But I hope that some of them are helpful to you as parents and grandparents now, that you would be determined to lay down your life for your children. These things are fleeting. You know, there's some things you can only learn with time. And older people say the same thing to every generation, which is, it's gone so fast. And if I look around at some of your older parents, you'll all shake your head, it's gone so fast. You don't know where it went. And I think Lorelei and I felt that just on Labor Day a few weeks ago when Peter Jr. moved to Canada and all of a sudden gone. And you never know when a child moves out, what does the Lord have next? The path only is known to him. And I would encourage you that every day the Lord gives you, all the way to that day when your children strike out and begin a new household, that these principles would run through how you treat your children. And begin in infancy, and begin thinking about life the way God thinks about it, that he knit this life together. in the mother's womb, and he gave this heritage, and he gave me an opportunity to show the love of Christ. And begin that with your very littlest children. Okay, I actually finished on time. This means there may be time for questions. Life in the first year, or observations from all these seasoned grandparents I see here who have done this maybe Second round, which I'm just beginning to understand in the last month. This is the first time I'm representing parents and grandparents. Any questions about the care of little ones, of infants? I hope you see that I was aiming at an attitude of the heart. The heart. Anything? Any practical questions? None of? Never. There's language in the scriptures that we can weary him with our sinfulness, anthropomorphic language, but he does not grow weary in the way that we do. But I would say this, I have great compassion for weariness, and the Lord does too, and he knows we get tired, and he knows we're finite, and we're not like him in this way, but Isaiah 40 says, Even the ewes shall faint and grow weary and utterly fail, but those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. There's another great comfort in Isaiah 40 in verse 11, that he cares for his children and gently leads those who have little ones. It's a beautiful verse I often read when I do a visit of parents who have a first baby, that he remembers mothers, the language there is actually the ewes, the mother sheep God carries as they carry little ones. Yet it does, it should keep us very humble and prayerful, very humble and prayerful, which is a good place to be. And if you have children and you understand something of what God does when he gives you children, it is a humbling experience and it should make you prayerful. And being sort of in the middle of the beginning of being a grandparent and still having little ones, I would say that over the last 24 years, humbling would be a very good word to describe parenting. Started with all kinds of books and ideals. I still like some of the books I started with, but it's been far more humbling than I thought it would be. That's an admission of a bad start, but it is humbling, and that's not bad for us. Krista. Here are parenting books. I have a stack at home. So I don't know of any that, Shepherding a Child's Heart was formative to us, for us. Parenting by the Promises, Joel Beeky, is a decent book with some good help. I do like, actually, Goode's, Goode's, I think, domestical happiness. It's not very popular in our day and age. As a matter of fact, feminists do not like it at all, which maybe means I like it more. It's a Puritan work that gets into a lot of details of life. I don't agree with him on everything, but he's, as a classic Puritan, works out biblical principles deeper into life with application that's helpful. Benjamin Morgan Palmer has a book on the family, which has marriage and child rearing in it, and it has some very practical wisdom in it, too. There's another one, Bruce Ray with Hold Not Correction, which I don't like the title. I don't like starting there. If you need to learn how to correct your children, pick that one up. There's other books and other movements. Have any of you heard of the Ezos? There was this movement called Growing Kids God's Way. I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan of... formulaic methods of parenting that say if you use this much physical discipline and this many Bible verses memorized and this much of this, this, and this, and you press play, you produce a well-rounded Christian. I think those methods have produced legalists and harsh parents. It's not that you can't learn anything from good discipline, but we have to remember, there's something I'll come back to again and again and more in the next weeks, the Holy Spirit does the work of regenerating. And more time on our knees. So some of those more formulaic books I don't like much, but Shepherding a Child's Heart was formative for us. Marlee, any others that you can think of? No, no, good question. Benjamin Morgan Palmer's an interesting read, probably worth reading. Again, any book that I recommend, there's things that I like or don't like, but some of the older writers have some profound wisdom that's been lost in our present age. Yes. It's not a book on parenting, but Walt Chantry's book, In the shadow of the cross, studies in self-denial, every Christian should read for marriage and child rearing. As a matter of fact, our premarital counseling consisted of reading that book and this principle of your life for someone else's. First for Christ who gave his life for you and then for those around you is the heart of that book and it's a very good book to meditate on a happier Christian parenting. We'll get in the next weeks to some more practical things in parenting, but this here is a disposition towards the little ones. How can we learn those, even prepare ourselves early to think rightly about the children God has given us? Any other comments or questions? Let's pray together. Lord our God, we are grateful to you for this truth that Father like you tend and spare us. Well you know our feeble frame. Lord, we pray that you would give us grace to receive your care as little children, for this is our calling in your kingdom. And we pray also that having received such mercy, you would cause it to be the wellspring from our hearts, that considers even the littlest ones among us, and that we would pray for them and care for them in ways that reflect your love to us. Lord, we also know that you're a Lord who disciplines and corrects, and we pray that you would give us grace in the coming weeks to learn this also. But we pray that we would begin with the love with which you have loved us that has no beginning and no end. We pray that you'd forgive our sins and failings in this regard and make our hearts more tender towards you and towards our children. But we also pray thinking about the regrets we have and the sins we've committed. And we pray for the grace of repentance to turn even this morning. We pray for those who have little ones, those who have older children. Pray for grandparents that you would give to them that kind of tender heart that is needed to show Christ to another generation. Pray for those praying for children and waiting on you and longing to take up this work that you would supply Lord, whether married or longing to be married, and take up some of this work. Lord, we pray that you would provide. And we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.