Helping Marmie

 

I have five grandchildren.  The youngest two live nearby and are eight and eleven years old.  When they come over to our house, they like to “help” Marmie with her exercise.  But they haven’t quite got the idea yet.  You see, they get out Marmie’s elliptical machine and pedal for her.  They like to see the counter rolling up more and more revolutions.  Bennett announced, “Marmie, I got a thousand cycles for you!”  I didn’t have the heart to tell him that his pedaling didn’t do Marmie any good.  But before you laugh at Bennett, we as parents are guilty of the same logic.  Let me explain:  We send our children to the best school to give them an advantage.  We run them back and forth to soccer practice, to ballet classes, and to guitar lessons to help them become “well-rounded”.  We are careful with their friends and check their cell phones regularly.  Hey, all of these are good things to do, but these are things that we are doing for them.  Somehow, responsibility must be shifted from us to them.  We must get them to want to be a person of character.  And this can only be done by the dear Lord above.  David said in Psalm 103:17, “But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children.”  Do you want to help your children?  Do you want to help your grandchildren (who may not even be born yet)?  Then teach your little ones to love God; to fear God; and to obey God.  You can’t do it for them, but you can give them a good example of a Christian who loves God, who fears God, and who obeys God.  You can’t do it for them, but you can be a good example and trust that God will reach their heart.