July 4

1 Chronicles 22:14 (NIV84)
14 “I have taken great pains to provide for the temple of the LORD a hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver, quantities of bronze and iron too great to be weighed, and wood and stone. And you may add to them.

David had in mind and in heart to prepare his son for a great undertaking for God, so he went to “great pains” to provide the building materials for Solomon’s endeavor. Yet David expected for Solomon to add to the materials himself as well.

What are we leaving for our children to build with? In fact, what great thing are we encouraging them to do for the Lord? Do we expect them to be nice men and women who attend church, are good people and who tithe? We as parents first have to get a vision for our children’s future. Especially us fathers! Doesn’t the Word say that they are “arrows in our quivers”? If they are arrows, who does the shooting? – Us! We point them and shoot them! May it be into greatness and not smallness! May it be that we PLAN for their great exploits with “great pain”. All of us parents need to give an extraordinary supply of building materials to them with the thought of them adding to them. Of course this means something different for every child of ours, which means we had better get the Lord’s will for their life and start intentionally collecting materials for them.