INTRODUCTION

Parenting is future-oriented.  You are raising children to be faithful disciples of Jesus in the next generation.  We can do that well only when we parent in the Spirit, since the Spirit is the Spirit who makes future.

THE TEXT

“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven . . . .” (2 Corinthians 5:1-10).

SPIRIT AND FUTURE

Gregory of Nyssa charged that the Arians erred in their understanding of God’s eternity.  They “define God’s being by its having no beginning.”  Gregory said that the key mark of the biblical God is that He has no end: The “mark of deity [is] endless futurity.”   Our God is not simply Alpha; He is also, eternally, Omega, eternally fulfilled as the future God that He always will be.  God overcomes all boundaries and obstacles; God always has a future, and always makes a future for His people.  The Spirit is the Person particularly associated with the future.  Creation has a future because the Spirit hovers over the waters (Genesis 1:2); Israel in exile has a future because Yahweh promises the Spirit (Ezekiel 36-37); the dead Jesus has a future because the Spirit of life raises Him from the grave; the Spirit is the “down payment” on the future inheritance (2 Corinthians 1:21-22; 5:1-10).  We are able to prepare our children for an uncertain future because the Spirit has been given to us and to them.

GIFTS

Paul points out in various places (Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12) that the Spirit is the source of gifts.  There is one Spirit but that Spirit manifests Himself in a great variety of gifts in the church.  We tend to think of these gifts as “supernatural” gifts above and beyond “natural” abilities, but that’s not the way the Bible talks about the Spirit’s work.  Even “natural” gifts like administrative ability (Genesis 38:33-46), artistic skill (Exodus 28:3; 31:3; 35:31) and prowess in battle (Judges 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6, 19; 15:14) are from the Spirit.  Our children have been gifted by that Spirit.  Though the same Spirit works in all our children, the Spirit works differently in each of them.  It’s our job as parents to discern our children’s particular gifts, cultivate them, point them toward a future, and guide them toward callings where they can use their gifts for God’s glory.  This takes a great deal of care and discernment, because our children’s most important gifts may not be the obvious ones.  We should especially strive to discern immature forms of those gifts that may be hidden in their childish and even sinful habits.

GOALS

Where do we want our children to end up?  It’s easy to slip into bad answers to that question.  Our goal is not to form them into law-abiding middle class American consumers; that is conformity, not discipleship.  Nor is our goal necessarily to train them for leadership.  If you discern gifts of leadership in your children, by all means cultivate those gifts, but some children are not built to lead, and that is perfectly fine.  Scripture sets out the basic goals.  We want our children to love God with their whole heart and to love their neighbors as themselves (Luke 10:27)), to seek the kingdom of God above all things (Matthew 6:33), to do everything with all their might to the glory of God (Ecclesiastes 9:10; 1 Corinthians 10:31), to rejoice and be thankful in all things (Ephesians 5:20), to follow Jesus, even at great cost, and to produce all the fruits of the Spirit.