"LITTLE CHILDREN!"

My wife and I had the privilege of eating Dinner with my sons and their wives Saturday Evening before Mother's Day on Sunday.    Just sitting there watching and listening to the conversation around the table was enjoyable for me. It is amazing that I have two sons that are 25 and 21 years old! 

In my quiet time this morning, I was reflecting on my kids growing years.  It is amazing how time slips by!  It is also frightening in a way to realize how the things that SEEMED so important while they were growing up, now seem so insignificant.  Playing baseball, winning a spelling contest at school, playing in a STATE CHAMPIONSHIP game in high school, all seem so removed from today!  And yet, the events seemed to dominate our lives at the time! 

Whose "fault" was that?  Who let the PRIORITIES of our family be set in one way or another?  1 John Chapter 2 starts out by saying "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."  It ends by saying "And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him" in 1 John 2:28-29 (ESV). 

I (Dad) may have gotten my FOCUS off a time or three while my sons were growing up, but GOD never allowed me to be apart from HIM!  Sometimes our vision gets obscured, but when we focus on OUR KING the goal becomes extremely clear.  LORD, help me to be more focused on the things YOU deem are important so I will not have to "shrink from him in shame at his coming!"