Giving Your Child Back to God
by Wayne Stiles
Giving your child back to God can be a tough decision for parents.Eighteen years of sacrifice, commitment, and training suddenly bring you to a point of no return.
(Photo by Monkey Business Images via Vivozoom)
Whether it is for college, for the military, or in the natural course of growing up,giving your child back to God is a point every parent has to face.
Hannah’s story shows us how to prepare for it, and then, how to do it.
Asking God for a Child
The fifteen-mile journey from Ramah to Shiloh took merely a day to travel. But for Hannah, it must have felt like weeks.
Her husband’s other wife jabbered incessantly to her sons and daughters, always loud enough for Hannah to hear. The snobbery added weight to Hannah’s silent burden. Her empty arms ached for a son. And because the other wife had children, Hannah’s problem was obvious to all: God had closed her womb.
She looked at the road beneath her sandals. Centuries earlier, this well-worn path had known the likes of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—all who had barren wives as well. The thought of their miraculous conceptions may have roused hope in Hannah’s heart. Shiloh was just ahead where she would worship.
Hannah determined to ask God for a son.
(Photo: Tel Shiloh, the area where the Tabernacle sat. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.)
She made her way to the tabernacle where behind several curtains glowed the holy presence of God. Approaching the doorway, she fashioned the words in her mind. As tears warmed her face, she made her request:
“O LORD of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life.” —1 Samuel 1:11
God Gives You a Child
After Hannah and her husband returned to Ramah, God gave her a son—Samuel. Once he was weaned at three years old, Hannah journeyed again to Shiloh . . . to give Samuel back to God.
Placing her boy in the care of the priest Eli, Hannah returned home again with empty arms.
Even though Hannah would see Samuel each year at the feasts, it would have been heartrending to leave the son she had cared for every day for three years.
And yet, she knew from the beginning the day would come. Samuel was not hers to keep. In reality, no child is.
God gives us children so that we may give them back to Him. (Tweet that.)
Giving Your Child Back to God
Hannah’s release of Samuel reveals the attitude all godly parents should adopt.
- Sons and daughters are like arrows to be aimed . . . and then released (Psalm 127:3–5).
- Children are not ours to keep, but ours to develop for God’s glory.
In surrendering a child to God’s purposes, the humble parent bows not in an admission of defeat but, like Hannah, in an act of worship.
Question: Why do you think we have such trouble giving a child back to God when He gave us the child to begin with?
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Amanda Beth
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Golden Gems from Grandma
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Lyn Leahz
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Steven Sawyer
We shouldn’t have trouble, because we KNOW that God only wants the very, very best for us, but of course, we are selfish people. We love our children and want to hang on to them. I don’t think I could have done what Hannah did – but then I wasn’t faced with that dilemma. We never know what we can do until God calls us to do something, and of course we know that with God’s commands comes God’s enabling.
With smaller families in Singapore, many precious cute ones have become the idols of parents who may no longer have time for God as they turn their attention to deprive their little idols of their childhood in order for them to fast track to be competitive in the fast changing, developing global environment. Children at pre kindergarten ages play games on I- pods while waiting for parents who do their shopping. No long do they play peek a boo but they familiarize themselves with IQ test questions for kids. They are reading newspapers at 2-3 years old while sitting on the potty. How would parents give up their children at 18 years when they invest so much of their life savings and time to ensure the “best” for children who they hope will take care of them in their golden years(very strong in Asian parental expectations) ? Many parents in Singapore will be disappointed if the push for children to economically go global becomes reality and children take off for ” greener pastures” than Singapore. It is time for parents to wake up and be reminded of God’s plan for families for their good. Each generation must take care of itself and not let the next generation inherit “hand me down ” problems be they health or finance and most of all spirituality and relationship with God which is personal.
This blog is a good reminder of God’s plan for families. Practically, doting parents should know that their children are better in God’s care than in the care of the world, even of themselves.