PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

One day a student came to D. L. Moody, the American evangelist who founded Moody Theological Seminary, saying, "I dare not to go out to get people saved because I am afraid that someone may be saved whom God did not choose." Moody answered, "On the outside lintel above the gate into heaven it is written, 'Whosoever will may come,' but on the inside it says, 'Chosen before the foundation of the world.' It is difficult to say who is chosen. We simply must do our duty to raise up our children according to the teaching of the Lord. Whether or not they have been chosen is not up to us. Some may say, "Because it is not up to us, we need not do much." However, this also is wrong….

…According to the principle in Ephesians 5, the Lord shepherds us by cherishing us and nourishing us (v. 29). We have to shepherd the young ones by cherishing and nourishing them. This requires that we spend time with them….

The Danger in Disciplining Young Ones

All parents know that every child is naughty. Some babies throw their rice bowl when their mother is feeding them. What should the mother do? The mother mostly cherishes them to make them happy, and by cherishing them, she feeds them. Parents raise their children by cherishing them in many ways. I have eight children; I have suffered much, and I have learned all the lessons. Ephesians 6:4 says, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but nurture them in the discipline and admonition of the Lord." When we discipline our children with provoking, our discipline is of no value.

If we are going to discipline a child, we must go to the Lord and say, "Lord, take away my provocation." This is very hard. Some parents whom I have taught in this way have said that without being provoked they cannot discipline their child. To them, punishing a child requires that they be provoked. Parents must remember not to spank their child when they are provoked. If one is offended by his child, he becomes a provocation to him, and he loses his capacity to discipline the child. When one is angry, he should not touch his children. He should leave them, kneel down, and pray. Then, when he is cherished by the Lord, he can go back to his children to cherish them. We need cherishing. When a parent provokes his child and spanks him, the child may leave home and run away. Then the parent needs to spend time to find him and bring him back. Many children after being provoked to anger and spanked leave home and do not want to come back. Eventually, the parent has to submit to them, bowing down his head to beg them to come back home, and he may have to gain them back indirectly through a big brother, a cousin, or some other relative.

Luke 15 first tells us how the Lord as the Shepherd sought for the one lost sheep. Second, the woman, signifying the Holy Spirit, lit a lamp and searched the house to find the lost coin. Third, a father lost his son, the prodigal, who eventually returned. The son prepared an apology for his father, but the father was already waiting to receive him. The son did not first see the father; the father first saw him and ran to him. The Brethren teacher from England under whom I first learned this chapter taught us that in the entire Bible only Luke 15 says that God ran. God only ran once, and it was to receive a returning prodigal son.

The Need For Shepherding, Especially By Cherishing

To me, shepherding means everything…for the vital groups, for the church, and for the elders. In Christian teaching, nearly no one stresses this matter, but it is a great matter. The Lord is not only our Shepherd and Overseer outwardly; He is also the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls (I Peter 2:25). I have stressed this in the Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John.

Today in the United States it is very hard to teach school. Even professors have to study how to shepherd their students. If they do not shepherd them, they may have serious problems. The first point of shepherding is cherishing. Ephesians 5 tells us that the Lord cherishes and nourishes the church, His Body. Without cherishing, nourishing by itself does not work. Today I handle things and do things very differently from the way I did thirty years ago. Within these thirty years I have learned much, even related to dealing with my children. We are touching society, and we are touching human beings. This is not a simple matter, so we must learn.

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