God’s covenant with Adam and Eve contained two interdependent provisions: descendents and dominion. Two people alone could not take dominion of the Earth. It would require descendants.
For us as believers, having children is a response to God’s command. “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen. 1:28). When a couple enters into marriage, they make themselves available to love, serve, train and sacrifice for the next generation.
Psalm 127:3 (NLT)
3 Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.
In this Psalm, children are called “a gift from the Lord.” But they are not just a gift. This also says that our children from the Lord so they really belong to God; they are “ours” only in a secondary sense. I have heard moms say, “my children are on loan from God.” That is so true. God gives children to parents, as a man entrusts his fortune to his heirs. He is entrusting us to love, care for and train up our children in the Lord. When we do this, it honors God.
Our oldest daughter traveled across the globe on missions trips since the age of fourteen. From that young age, God captured her heart and she sacrificed part of her summers every year after that to go where God was sending her. She even took the gift money that she received from her high school graduation and used it to fund her way on a mission trip to Lima, Peru. I tell you all of this to say that over the years I have had so many parents ask me, “How could you let your daughter travel to other countries on missions trips without you?” I would answer, “How could I say no? She is God’s daughter, on loan to me. I cannot get in the way of what God wants her to do for His people while she is here on earth.”
Today, I sat across from her and her fiance, discussing plans for their upcoming wedding. It seemed like a million thoughts raced through my mind. Did we fully train her? Did we make the best of the short time we had to prepare her for her future role as a wife and a mom? As I looked across the restaurant there was a young mom holding her newborn baby. Memories of our daughter being a newborn took me back to the time when we brought her home from the hospital and now she sits before me, so in love, repeating those same marriage plans like I did over twenty two years ago. The thought of my husband giving her away on her wedding day, made the phrase “she is on loan” even more real to me. Children are truly a gift from God and we only have a short time with them before they become an adult. I encourage you today to love, train and care for the gifts of children that God has given to you on loan.
