An exhortation to parents

This morning I want to speak to you, make an exhortation about fatherhood and motherhood. I know that today is Mother's Day, but we are going to include everyone, mom and dad, because the message is for both of them. And to begin with, I want us to begin by reading a passage in Mark 10, from verse 13 to 16. This is a very well-known passage. I think that practically all of you know it, it is the passage where it is said that Jesus blessed the children, a passage well known to many of us.

And I want us to imagine the scene, something that helps to give life to the word of God is to imagine ourselves, is to close our eyes and imagine that we are there, put it in full color. Sometimes we read the word in black and white, but we can read the word three-dimensionally with high definition, with beautiful colors, so God wants us to read the word. So let's imagine that scene. This Jesus was possibly a field, an open field. I imagine him sitting on a large stone, I imagine that there are people all around him but that there is a space that the same disciples and perhaps Jesus himself has left open for them to come to him. So he is surrounded by people, I imagine him looking at the people, making eye contact with them, and wanting to give them the words of life that those people needed to hear.

So we're going to read it like this, and I want you to see this passage from the perspective of the father and mother. The word says this in Mark 10 13 to 16:

“…and they presented children to him so that he could touch them….” That was a custom at that time, when there was a person of some importance, whether spiritual or political, parents often wanted to bring their children to those people so they could touch them, just a touch, you have seen the politicians today, you They have seen on television that it happens all the time, especially at election time, that people put up the barriers so that people do not go beyond a certain point so that politicians have their space and security and the parents are there many times with their young children and what they want is for the politician, even if it is, to touch their son a little. But obviously in this case they want someone who has obviously had knowledge that had a spiritual depth, a message that that person would touch their children.

The disciples rebuked those who presented them. The disciples took the prerogative of telling these people that they were presenting the children, they said, no, no, no. I imagine that the reason is the Teacher is busy, this is not for children, his time is limited so he has to dedicate it to adults, not to children, this is a waste of time, what are children going to receive with that, it is better that he can declare his words, his message without those interruptions that children provide. And evidently they had not heard Jesus' messages about humility.

And so he was saying, when he saw this, Jesus was obviously always on top of everything, he had eyes on all sides of his head, right? Like many moms and dads we know, we have eyes in the back of our heads, too. Well, Jesus was aware of the whole picture and when he saw this, when he saw that the disciples were rebuking the people who presented the children, what does the word say in the next verse? Says:

"...Jesus seeing him, what does he say? He was indignant and told them..."

He was outraged. What does it mean to be outraged? We are talking about a strong anger, right? And it is an anger that the word here means is that he got angry but at the same time there was pain in his spirit because of what he was seeing, because of what the disciples were doing. In other words, not simply when we get angry because we are frustrated, something superficial, no, when he speaks that the Lord was indignant, it was because he saw that this could not happen, that he had to do something at the moment, he had to give a lesson in that that was wrong. And it pained his spirit to see what the disciples were doing to these children. And Jesus said:

"...let the children come to me and do not stop them..."

Many times I have heard people reading this passage, they say it, let the children come to me and do not stop them, like a tone like…. When one is outraged, one does not use that tone, one uses a categorical, strong tone. So I believe the Lord said perhaps even stronger than this:

“…let the children come to me and do not stop them….”

She tells him twice, in case you didn't understand, to let the children come to me, I tell you, don't stop them. It's a double command for emphasis. So look why?

“…. Because of such is the Kingdom of God, then he continues adding to this concept that such is the Kingdom of God, he says, verily I tell you that whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it..."

In other words, children are models for all of us. If you look, when I was reading this passage I saw a trip a few years back when I was a child and I remembered moments that I still remember where I felt the presence of God in my life, where there was a desire to know God and have hunger for God and serve him. We are talking about a 3, 4, 5, 6 year old girl. I remember that I used to sit my little brothers down and play church; I was the pastor and they were the congregants. And I taught them the word and we prayed together and I say where did that come from? It is that the children, if you try to make that mental trip so that you see the sensitivity that there is in the children. Children obviously there is also a stain of sin in children too, we see that in the selfishness they have. Children are not perfect, so I don't think that is what the word points to, but rather what it is saying is that they are an example for us because they trust their mom and dad just as we should trust our heavenly Father.

Children, if you tell a child, sit there and I'll bring you a cookie right away. What does the child do? She stays there and looks to where the jar of cookies is because she knows that if mom really says I'm going to bring you the cookie right now, it's because she's going to. It is a trust. And the child is not wondering, will he give it to me, won't he give it to me? What motivations will my dad have for giving him the cookie, could it be that he wants something else, could it be...? No, the child simply trusts and not only that, but goes to his father and asks.

Our little grandson comes to our house and now he has a new trick, he always says auntie, auntie, it's a cookie, he knows where they are and everything and he points to the aunties, so now, as sometimes we tell him that there's no cookie because there's no It's time, now he says, one. And obviously who is going to resist that he says that to you with the one face? Nobody. So he has the confidence that he will get what he wants from those who provide for him, from those who love him. So that's what I think the Lord is referring to that quality of the child. The child believes without question.

We live in a time where we question everything. The child believes without question. Simply if you tell him, yes, daddy, or mommy, this is red, that is blue, the sun sets at 5, 6, he believes it, he doesn't have a problem with that. You are not questioning it. So that quality is what we have to have to enter the Kingdom of God. And they are a model for us.

And then in verse 16 it says; “…and taking them in his arms, placing his hands on them, he blessed them…”

Taking them in his arms, placing his hands on them, he blessed them. That tells me that Jesus in this case went far beyond what those who brought the children to Jesus were expecting. Because notice that in the first verse 13, what does it tell you? And they presented him with children for what? for him to touch them. These parents, or these whoever they were, were content with Jesus touching them. But Jesus not only touched them, but He didn't put His hand like that lightly, something superficial, but He took them in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them.

Imagine the scene, he is sitting on this big stone, he picks up each child individually or maybe two at a time, it is possible that they were…. No, but it can't be two because it would need a lot more hands. So he would take one at a time, so if there were I don't know how many, 30, 50, 100 children, he did that with each one of those children, he took them in his arms, placed his hand on them and blessed them.

In other words, he used many ways to reach their spirit. Physical contact is so important for our children, it is even biologically essential, it is proven that physical contact still helps digestion, so something so simple that one sees, and that is why one does not see that children are in orphanages or in homes where there is negligence in care, in affection, these children suffer in everything, emotionally, physically, in all areas of their being they suffer. So physical contact is important. Jesus took them in his arms, they felt the presence of the Lord, he laid his hand on them. I don't know, I imagine maybe he put it on his little head, which is what many of us do, right? We put our hand on the head of a child, we blessed him, and he blessed them. So he also declared words of life over each of them.

And when you see that then you have to wonder, well, who was carrying the children? One assumes it was the parents, right? The older siblings perhaps, it could be, but I assume that it would mostly be the parents who brought the children to Jesus. That is one of our main functions in life, or the main one, not one but the main one, is to bring our children to Jesus.

And this is a model for us. What Jesus did with these children is a model for each of us. Taking our children in our arms, laying hands on them and blessing them. To bless them is to declare words of blessing. Many times prophetic words of what God has told us about what that child is or will be.

I sincerely believe that if I ask each of you, parents, grandparents, uncles, older siblings, each of you want the children in your life to have a personal relationship with Jesus, right? That there is no doubt. And each one of us seeing danger, if you see a car approaching a child, what do you do? Is in danger. You run and leave whatever and you get in the way to protect that child, right? Or if we see any danger, a dog that pounces on them, anything, we immediately alert ourselves and take action. That is part of our role as parents is precisely to protect our children. What happens is that there are many things. The car is obvious, the dog is obvious, many other dangers for our children are obvious, but there are others that are not so obvious.

So what I want to do this morning is to exhort you in different areas about raising our children so that we expand our vision. Let's say, they are things that I have learned, that is the benefit of age. When we live in the Lord and use time as God wants, that gives us wisdom. We ask for wisdom, the experiences lived in the Lord bring us more wisdom.

So today what I want is what I have learned to share with you. And one thing that I think is very important is to understand that God created the human being with mind, body and spirit and this is no different in the life of a newborn baby or a small child. In other words, the spirit of a child is not smaller than your spirit, which is already an adult, is not smaller. It is the same, it is full of potential in the Lord, it is a living spirit, already defined by the Lord since before the foundation of the world.

I think that makes a difference, because if we understand what material we are working with, that should motivate us to be more responsible and more intentional in how we raise our children. That is very important. That for me was a revelation when I realized, I can't neglect myself, I can't waste time with other things. I have to focus on raising, on nurturing the spirit of my son or of those small children and even adolescents. The children in my life have to be nurtured and it has to be done from a young age.

We sometimes have a tendency to think that children entertain themselves when they are little, and then later we take care of teaching them spiritual truths. It is not so, I believe that from the womb we must begin to bless the life of that child, to declare prophetically about the spirit of the child.

Look, children are so sensitive. There are studies that have proven that a child hears music and that a child who listens to music inside its mother's womb will be more sensitive to music when it is born, so if that is true, and we are simply hearing mechanisms, brain mechanisms, how can it not also be true that the spirit also receives from the moment it is inside its mother's womb. So that's the first truth that I want to share with you: see that child and understand the potential and determine from an early age precisely to nurture that potential.

I had an experience, and excuse me again for bringing up the grandson, you know that those stages, sometimes one laughs at the grandparents that all the stories are about the grandchildren, but when one gets there one realizes why is. It is that it is another stage. Now you, those who have not reached it will see. But anyway, one day I was taking care of Caleb at home and he was 5 months old, he had fallen asleep in my arms and I had simply stayed enjoying it, I had stayed with him like this, and for now the spirit of the Lord led to prophesy over his life.

And so I began, very quietly, in a very quiet voice, that is, I was not going to wake anyone up, very quietly I began to declare God's favor over his life and what God is going to do in his life, what the Lord He was telling me, I declared it about him in a very quiet voice. You know, that kid was sound asleep. You know that babies at 5 months sleep and sleep. And he, for a moment, as soon as I began to prophesy about him, he opened his eyes very fixedly, he looked into my eyes, he looked at me as soon as I finished, I said the last word, I said amen, he closed his eyes and continued sleeping. We can say, it's a coincidence, I know it wasn't a coincidence, I know that he was responding to the spirit of God that was speaking to him through me. That taught me a lesson that I don't miss any opportunity now about his life, about the lives of other children, and about the lives of adults as well. If God tells me something, we will bless the person on the spot.

So in the word we also have many foundations to know that the spirit of a child, the call of God on his life is there from early on. Notice, we go to the Scriptures, you don't have to look it up, you just have to write it down, in Isaiah 49, verse 1 it says:

"Listen to me Costas, this is Isaiah speaking, and listen to distant peoples, Jehovah called me from the womb, from the womb of my mother he remembered my name..."

And if we go to verse 5 of that same passage from chapter 49 in Isaiah, it says:

"Now then says the Lord, who formed me from the womb to be his servant..."

What does that tell us? Called the eyes of God already on Isaiah from the womb, not when Isaiah was 50 years old, nor 40, nor 30, from the womb. Doesn't that change your perspective of how we are to believe about children even from the womb?

In Jeremiah, which is another example, and in the word there are many more examples, but these are the only ones we are going to see today, in Jeremiah in the first chapter, verse 4 says:

“…then the word of Jehovah came to me saying, before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I sanctified you, I gave you as a prophet to the nations…”

Wow! So already a call, full on the life of Jeremiah. It says before you were formed in the womb, that is, we are not talking about the womb, even before, God can already have plans and purposes for our children because God does not only call adults. As he tells us in those verses in Isaiah and Jeremiah, God calls even before we are born.

And I believe that part of the privileges that we have as parents is to ask God what he has for each of our children? If we don't ask him, he's not going to answer us, so we have to ask God, Lord, what do you have for this little boy who only says, goo, goo, goo and cries, and that I have to change his Pampers every two hours, what do you have for this baby?

I know from experience that I was unaware of this truth when I had my first daughter, but by the time my second daughter arrived I had already learned. And the Lord spoke to me about my son. Then he told me about the eldest also when he was a little older. But the moment she was born God gave me her calling. So God, if we have the disposition, the understanding to understand what these spiritual issues are about our children, God is going to reveal it to us. He is going to reveal to us what he has for each of our children and how he wants to use them.

So we as parents are observant, all the time seeing how my son is, what tendencies he has, what his temperament is like, what I see that he likes, what spiritual sensitivity he has. In other words, we have to see all of this and nurture it, just as we nurture the minds of our children, we are going to nurture the spirit as well.

If we go back to the passage from Jeremiah, the first chapter of Jeremiah, verse 6 then, we see the response that Jeremiah gave to this call, to the words of Jehovah that he was going to be a prophet to the nations and that he had known him yet. before being born. Notice what Jeremiah answers in verse 6, he says:

“… and I said, ah, Lord Jehovah, behold, I don't know how to speak because I am a child… and what does Jehovah say to him? Listen to the answer in verse 7, it says "... do not say I am a child because you will go to everything I send you and say everything I send you..."

In other words, the same Lord, the same God, what does he do? Jeremiah limits himself, he says, but I am only a child. And what does Jehovah tell him? That he does not take his childhood into account, that the fact that he is a child is not a factor. Sure, we know that Jeremiah's call developed over time. We understand that. A child who has been called to be a prophet is not necessarily a prophet from 3 months or 10 years old, maybe, but he is in preparation. So we have to nurture that, we have to participate in that process of limitation.

And another example of this is in the first chapter of Luke, in verse 76, there we find when Zacharias gives some prophetic words about his son John, who we know would later be John the Baptist. Look at the words that Zacharias, this father, declares about his son in Luke 1:76, says:

"... and your child, prophet of the Most High you will be called because you will go before the presence of the Lord to prepare his ways...."

This is a father prophesying about the life of his baby and this baby at that time was just born. So that is what God calls us to prophesy about the lives of our children, to be observing how the spirit of that child is, how I can help nurture it. And as a part I encourage you to choose the name that God wants for your children.

Many people give names without discernment and choose, well, I'm going to look at the name of grandmother so-and-so with aunt-so-and-so, here, and I'm going to make a new name, and we don't ask ourselves…. If you want to do that, you have every right to do it, I know that, but find out, find out what God is telling you about that boy, that girl so that you can agree on the name. The Jews practiced that and still do to this day. I believe that it is a good practice and I am glad, I see within our congregation we have seen through the last few years how people are doing just that. I don't know if you have noticed but I am aware of the names of the little children in our congregation and I have realized that there is a desire to honor God with the name and to stamp a personality prophetically in the lives of the children. .

So if you have something to do with it, please seek the Lord to know what name to give the children, especially if they are your own, don't give someone else's, but your own. Yes, because there are people who also want to put their name and you have to respect what the parents want. There is nothing more important than the salvation of our children. There is nothing more important than your spiritual life.

Many times we have very specific goals regarding the education of our children, everyone wants their children to study a vocation or a career, we want them to grow in different areas, in sports, but we also have goals regarding the character of God that we want to see formed in that child, in terms of the depth of his relationship with the Lord. That is important, just as we have goals for the rest, we have to have it for that. We have to be very consistent and daily work on those goals.

I remember, when my eldest daughter was 2 years old, God confronted me with the reality that I was not very clear about my goals in the spiritual sense regarding her life. I remember that I went into her room, I was going to pray for her and God rebuked me, he told me, you have to be more specific as to what you are asking about your daughter's life. Later I learned, with the second one it was different, it was a learning process. So I am giving pearl of wisdom to you.

From now on start, ask God, Lord, what goals do I have to set myself? What practices do I have to incorporate into my life so that my children grow spiritually from the time they are children, not waiting for them to grow up, but from the time they are children? A trap in this world is to think this matter of, they have to choose. When my daughter or my son are older, well, they will choose how they serve the Lord, what gifts God is going to give them. That is not so, imagine how foolish it would be if we chose textbooks, math books, science books, language books, literature books, we threw them there on the floor, we threw them in the son's room, and we said, my son, when it pleases you, when you grow up, when you feel the inclination to study mathematics, well, the book is there. You take it when you want. That would be silly right? None of us would do that. There is an order and things have to be done, tasks have to be done, there is order and discipline. We have to take that to the spiritual. Sure, no stiffness. We are not talking about rigidity or legalism. Because the best learned lessons are those that are learned in the natural environment and in the natural moment. Those are the best lessons, not the ones that are imposed on us with a plank, or a biblazo on the head. That is not the idea. But let us be attentive and guide these little ones from the beginning and still... no matter how old they are, it is never too late to sow in the lives of our children. But if we start early in life much better result.

And look, we are going to read a passage, that passage is in Deuteronomy 6, we are going to read verses 1, 2 and from 5 to 7, because it is a key verse about how the home is the true place of discipleship for our children. And they are words of Moses to the people of God, Deuteronomy 6 says:

"... these then are the commandments, statutes and decrees that Jehovah, your God, commanded that I teach you so that you put them into practice in the land to which you cross to take it..."

The people were about to enter the promised land, so Moses is there giving the last orders from God to the people.

"...so that you may fear the Lord your God, keeping all his statutes and his commandments that I command you..." And notice what he says now, he says: "... you, your son, and your son's son..."

In other words, we are talking about this not only for you, it is for your children, your grandchildren and everyone else.

“…all the days of your life so that your days may be long and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength, and these words that I command you today shall be on your heart and You will repeat them to your children and you will talk about her when you are, say it with me, in your house and walking down the road and when you go to bed and when you get up…”

Ok, so who is responsible for discipling children in things of the spirit? To the parents, it is to the family at all times. Look, these are all everyday moments in life, at home, walking down the road, taking them to school, picking them up from school, taking them to the dentist, taking them to soccer practice, whatever you do and going to bed. Those beautiful moments when the child is already calm in bed, it's like you see him differently, that relief. I don't know what it is, I don't know if it's out of love for my son or out of relief. He's going to bed now, I can go on, now I can have some quiet time. I think that part is that too. But in your house, walking on the road, when you go to bed and when you get up. In other words, at all times we have to talk to them about the wonders of God, declare the statutes and decrees of the word of God to our children. And as I said before in organic and natural ways.

And I want to tell you that the church is not the one that has the responsibility of discipling the children, our children. Some people believe that. But it is not the church. Of course, it is important, it is essential that a church have discipleship programs for all ages, particularly for children and youth. That is essential in a church, it is part of the life of a church. Not that I'm not underestimating the importance of that. But those ministries walk hand in hand with us as parents or grandparents, or uncles, whatever, they are hand in hand, they are resources for us to enrich what we are already doing in our home. It is not a substitute. It is not that this is where they come to read the Bible, or this is where they come to pray. No, it's not like that. At home we guide them, we disciple them and then the church becomes another resource that we can take advantage of, and it is good that we take advantage of it to further enrich the lives of our children.

Because in reality the children they need are the daily models, the daily model of a faith in action. Our faith in our mouths, in our hands, in our feet, a faith in action, is what children need to see every day. We are God's collaborators in that sense, in the spiritual aspect. And we model the Christian life, the children will learn, they will imitate what they see that we live. So we have the immense privilege, the responsibility of teaching our children how the Christian life is lived.

Each one of us is an open book for our children, an open book and our children are going to read every page, even the ones you think are stuck there and that no one can see. Our children have vision beyond 20 20 and they will read those pages too. So that's why we have to keep growing, we have to be careful with our integrity and we have to be careful how we treat our wife, our husband, how we manage our money, how we manage our behavior because children are going to learn much more with that with which we speak to him. So we have to be very careful with that.

And in Timothy there is another example of the word where Paul speaks to this new pastor, this young pastor, Timothy, who has been under his cover. He has been mentoring him and the Apostle Paul comments to his disciple that he constantly remembers him in his prayers and in verse 5 he says:

"... bringing to the unfeigned memory that is in you...."

In other words, that is what Paul says about Timothy's faith, which is not feigned, it is natural, it is genuine.

"... which first dwelt in your grandmother Loire, and in your mother Eunice, and I'm sure in you too..."

That is what makes a healthy family life, a faith lived in integrity, not perfection. Look, I know that no one is perfect here, starting with me, there is no one perfect, but we always have to do the best we can with what we know, with what we have, the best we can, and always grow and improve, discarding everything that prevents us from living the Christian life as we should live it. Because our children are going to see that too, they are going to see the before and now and they are going to be happy with the changes they see. So that is one more example: Timothy, that the faith that he learned, was first in his grandfather, then it was in his mother and then it came to him and a genuine faith, that that is what we want our children to achieve.

We don't have to teach our children religion. Religion is something, it's stuck with cheap tapes, that is, it's stuck there and right now there's a humidity, a little water, a wind and the tape comes off. That is not what we want. We want the relationship that we model with God to be imitated by them as well and impregnated in their spirit, not taped but impregnated in their spirit as happened in the case of Timothy.

At home there are lots of opportunities, I call them teachable moments, in English it is teaching moments, teachable moments that we have to take advantage of. In the word there is a well known verse that I think every Sunday is put here when it is time for the children to go up to their classes, it says, Proverbs 22:6 says:

“…Instruct the child in his way and even when he is old he will not turn away from him….”

So once again we read before in Deuteronomy that this is a matter of the way, of the house, of the entrance, of the exit, when going to bed, when getting up. And that is what it means to instruct. To instruct means that the one who instructs, the instructor, does it with purpose, with discernment, with order, with discipline, with intentionality. In other words, it is not random, but rather something that happens that we plan, that we seek from God and then we instruct the child.

We instruct not by sermons to be sometimes papapapapppa, talking and the children after 30 words turned off the brain. It is not only because of the words, which words are obviously important, but also with the way we affirm them, that we correct them, by the time we spend with them, asking them about their dreams, watching them together, sharing nice things, talking about the situations in their life, their concerns, bringing them with us to adore, making them participants in our spiritual life. I mean, all those are ways, well… teachable moments. We have to look for that moment where the spirit of our children is porous, is willing to receive, look at them, take advantage of them and then impart life to our children.

We live in such a big trouble, right? Many of you, work, home, sports, the other things that we allow into our house, that take up time, so many things, that worry that we experience that many times prevents us from doing just that, being present and discerning what they are those teachable moments and seize them.

I want to give you two examples from my life when my girls were little where I saw that clearly, I took advantage of the teachable moment for them to make their decision for the Lord. My eldest daughter at 6 years old, one day we were…. Something totally everyday, I was feeding the little girl who was less than one year old, she was months old, she was in her high chair, and I was talking to her about the wonder, look how nice we now have a little sister, a little daughter, a member more of our lives, we have to be so thankful to God for that, and she was…she herself added her words of happiness because she was happy, she didn't know what to do with the fact that she had a little sister. And so I took her at that moment to talk about Jesus, about God's blessing on our lives, about her life and I guided her so that she could make her decision for Jesus at that moment, that her spirit was open and porous at that moment to receive the Lord.

I know that later on she had to make another decision, right? Because they are maturing, but it is important to look for those moments when they are little and instill that in them at that moment. With the little girl it was a similar situation, we were on the way, I was taking them to school, they were in a school far from our house and on the way I turned on the TV on a Christian station and there was a song that she liked, a song about spiritual truths. And I saw how she reacted to the song and started singing it and we started talking about the song, and I asked her, would you like to accept Jesus as your savior right now? And I remember her little face, moving like that, yes, she wanted to do it and I said, well, now is the time, so I stopped, I was driving. I stopped the car under a tree, to this day she remembers where that tree is. And there she made her profession of faith.

That is what I mean by looking for those moments like this where the spirit of the son is open to receive something for us to teach him or impart to him some word of life. And if we are in such a hurry all the time, sometimes we are going to waste those moments. So again, look for the teachable moments.

And again, you don't have to have children, maybe it's your neighbor who came to your house, or your niece who came to visit. It doesn't matter, your grandchildren, no matter who they are, you can be an influence in that child's life.

Another thing that I think is very important is that we give our children a community of faith. Many people come to church, they come like they punch out the card on Sundays, they come, they are often late, they sit in their seats, they participate, they listen, but then, sometimes before the service is over, they are already running out. That is not community life, that is better than nothing, we are glad and if that is only what you can do for now, glory to God, we are happy that you come and do not participate in anything else. But that is not what the Christian life is. The Christian life is also lived in community. Thus, it is very important that you create the desire in the child to come to church, for his friends, his mothers and his spiritual fathers to be here. It is so nice to see children who always want to come to church because they know that it is a fun place, it is a place where I enjoy, it is a pleasant place, where I receive, where I am part of a community, where I have a name, where I they know and love me. And that is not done by running, running in, being here for an hour and a half or two hours and running out. You have to spend a little more time on that.

And at the same time then that you bring your children, the important thing is that you supervise them during these worship and discipleship activities that you come. Sometimes we have this mentality that we come to church for ourselves, the adult is the one who receives, the child is entertained. And that is a lie from the devil. Children do not come to church to be entertained, they come to be discipled by the Lord, and for the resources that are here, apart from what they already receive at home. So it is very important that they come knowing what they are coming to. May they understand that this is a place of reverence where the presence of the Lord is here, where there is power in the fact that brothers gather and worship together. We have to interpret that to them as parents, they don't just come there, we bring them running like this, sometimes we drop them here, we continue and you don't know what the child is doing, what he is receiving, we don't ask him what you learned today in the bible school. We have to follow up. If we are projecting to them that this is not important, do you know what the child is going to learn? That it doesn't matter, that it's just something we do on Sundays and we're making a mistake and wasting a very important resource.

Look, about three months ago I went down to the basement, when half an hour had passed after the service, the service had started half an hour ago, and in the basement at a round table there were 8 young preteens and early teens there they had a party listening to ipod , talking, laughing. The service had already started and it was half an hour in praise, anointed praise in the presence of the Lord and they down there with their own business laughing. And the worst of all was that when I spoke to them respectfully, I asked them what they were doing there, that it was time to leave, that they each had to look for their parents, the worst thing was that none of them moved. I had to raise my voice to them for them to react. Wow, what are we doing? Such a precious resource.

And that, look, it's not the ushers' job, it's not the teachers' job, that's the parents' job, having to look for them, you have to be aware of where they are, what you're doing, if there are no classes, where do you have to be they? They have to be next to you serving too.

There is a young lady who spends many Sundays here in front, she passes by with her young lady, a girl of elementary age and a boy and that seems so beautiful to me, they dance together, pray together, it is very special to see how she comes.

And another day, going back to the not so pleasant examples, it was the, the service had already started again, there were 4 youngsters, one of them with a video game device, very connected. He had sought to connect it to the wall up there, behind there, he was very connected, very intelligent, and there he was playing video games, there were 4 in total. And I say, and the parents don't know that this boy brought a video game, that he is using it in church? I think we have to put up a little sign that says, It's 9 o'clock, the service is going to start, do you know where your son is?

It seems that it struck a chord, that's the parent's job more than anything. Ok, I know that…. He had much more to talk about but a few more minutes. One very important thing is to take advantage of the resources that the church offers, come, bring your children. Go to the inconvenience of bringing them, do other things. Buy them Christian materials, Christian videos, music that they like Christian, do something to nurture your child in that regard. Pray with your children and for your children. Ask God to give you the discernment to know what your child's spiritual needs are.

Look, all of us have cracks in our armor, starting with the adults, we have cracks. We are not perfect, we have inconsistencies. And parenthood is a very important place, we have to see what my inconsistencies are and how they affect the way I raise my children.

An example is, for example, being too permissive, letting the children do everything. Many times it is because we have grown up in such a rigid home that we then want to compensate with our children, giving them everything they want. That obviously isn't going to lead to anything good. There are many examples that we could give of things in us that limit us in the way in which we exercise our parenthood.

And so let's also look at the cracks in my son's armor. Even from a very young age, many times it can be excessive shyness, children who do not want to relate to anyone, who are afraid of people, so pray for the child, provide him with natural experiences so that he can overcome that. They may be children who perhaps have a tendency to be angry, a little selfish, ungenerous. In other words, we are going to see what those things are that our son has, the cracks in his armor, and we are going to help him to discern and through prayer, or action, as Roberto says. Pray and action to help the son overcome it.

And also see, we are going to observe what are the traits that this child has of spiritual sensitivity and we are going to guide him more and more for that. It may be a child who is very sensitive to the needs of others, so we are going to provide opportunities for that child to grow in leadership by responding to a need for others.

So there's so much one can do with a child, practical things. Another thing is to discern what influences are competing for the hearts of our children. That's so important. We have to see what we are allowing our children to receive. You wouldn't let a garbage truck come dumping its rot in your living room, would you? That a garbage truck entered his house and plum, deposited all that smelly garbage in his house, that contamination. In no way, we would do everything possible to put up barriers, to prevent that from happening.

However, as parents, we often do not step in the gap and allow harmful influences into our children. And obviously it's easy to think of many. I'm not talking, mind you, it's not necessarily drugs, or other things, sometimes it's things like the television, like the use of the Internet, like the iPod, like all those devices. It's not that I'm against it, quite the contrary, I use them daily, but many times we don't set rules, we don't teach our children to use those resources, we allow them to have free access.

And I want, I know that we are running with time, but allow me just to open your understanding to this reality, I want to share with you some small statistics, I am not going to put all the statistics that I had prepared due to lack of time, but one thing It is important, for example, that in the last 5 years the daily use of the media by young people between the ages of 8 and 18 has increased dramatically. We have that children between the ages of 8 and 18 use daily at least 7 and a half hours of the media. And that includes everything, it includes television, it includes the use of the internet, the ipod, it does not include the cell phone to make calls and receive texts. They say that daily children from 8 to 18 receive and give messages an hour and a half daily on average. Only in text messaging, you can imagine what that is: an hour and a half. And 7 and a half hours of the media.

I don't know about that, but it alarms me a lot. And 30% of the children who were interviewed in this study say that only the third, that 30% of the interviewees, of these children who participated in this study, only 30% of those children, their parents put some limit on the use Of the media. In other words, 70% are using their ipod how they want, where they want and when they want, the computer without any type of restriction and watching all the television they want to see.

That is, I find, quite alarming. 64% say that the television is on during dinner. 45% say the TV is on almost all the time. I have gone to many things where the television is… no one is watching the television but the television is on, it is like it gives them comfort, it fills the space with something, I don't know what it is, the issue is that obviously the children where the television is on most of the time, they watch more television than others.

In a later one we see that Hispanic children watch 5 and a half hours of television per day more than white children. So that's up to us. And you know, I think part of that is soap operas and who turns on soap operas? Ok, nothing more, let's say nothing more about that.

The issue is that watching television, the media, all those things, what it brings is harm to our children. We could make a very long list of the things they bring. They bring an increase in aggressiveness, in violence, school achievement is reduced, because obviously their brain is dull, it is full of everything they see. They don't have space, they don't have space left to enter mathematics and science. There is no space, everything is bottled up with things that should not be.

And so on. Another thing, one of the damages is lack of family time. Have you been to families where everyone is on their own? There is one here, watching television so as not to disturb others, sometimes he has a headphone. The other one is over there, doing assignments with an ipod on. Each to his own. In other words, we have media bombing our house but no communication. Communication in the family is eroding and disappearing, it's almost like an extinct animal.

But you can do something about it. You can set limits on not giving your child a cell phone, don't give him that privilege without giving him a list of rules on how it should be used. And one of the things that worries me the most is the last one, the enough is enough page statistic. One of the things that worries me the most is that 79%, says another study, of children are being exposed to pornography at home.

We are talking, it is not necessarily a child that they are actively looking for pornography, but using the internet, without rules, without any provision of how they use it by their parents, they are entering these websites by mistake. I remember once I put, I was searching about the fruit of the spirit on the computer on a website, and I put some love, I don't know what I put on the computer, the thing is, do you know what came out? A pornographic website for women... just in case, I didn't look, I didn't search, but I found it without looking for it, totally innocently.

So imagine, they are children using these media at home, alone, what are they doing? They have all kinds of access. So I am telling you this so that you have discernment and establish order in your home. Most of the children of those who are addicted to pornography, that starts at home, it is in our homes, in Christian homes. And so if they see the television that is turned on to programs that are dubious, where there are scantily clad women, and scenes that children should not be watching with their parents present, well, what does the child say? This is not bad, my dad and mom see this during the day. So I tell you as a mom, as a mom, please be careful. Do not allow garbage to enter the living room of your house. Do something, say no to this, it's for the good of your children.

Your children are like a sponge, if they are full of garbage, if that is what they are absorbing, there is no room in the sponge for them to absorb the truths of the spirit and what God wants to do with them. Those two essences do not mix. So it is our responsibility, we prevent that from happening.

And the last thing I want to tell you is to encourage you not to underestimate everything you do for the spiritual growth of your children. It is possible that today you will not see results from what you are doing, but do not worry that one day what you are doing for your children will bear fruit. I know, I know from my life, still today I enjoy the benefits of what I received from my parents spiritually speaking and I have the example of my sister, my sister Sonia is 16 years younger than me, so I was like mom figure for her, we had our mom but I was a maternal figure for her. I remember that since I was little, when she went to sleep, I would lie down near her and read to her from the Bible, stories from the Bible, and she says that when she was converted, later on, around the age of 27, when she converted , that God allowed me the privilege of bringing her to the ways of the Lord, after having lived a difficult life, with many struggles, bad decisions, she finally accepted the Lord, like at that age, in her twenties, and she says that one of the things that helped her the most in finally making her decision is remembering the stories that I read to her as a child. That seems like it's kind of not that important, but still there. And today she married a pastor, she and her husband pastor, they have 3 precious daughters who are raising up for the Lord, so what we thought was impossible to achieve, due to the life trajectory that she led in her youth, it has been the opposite. God has used everything that was invested in it.

yes, do not be afraid, it may still be that you have a child who is past childhood, do not be afraid, continue investing in your child's life, praying for him, blessing him. Not long ago I told a mother who has 4 children, I told her, bless, we were talking about this, about this topic today, I said bless your children and she stayed like that, it had never occurred to me, and is a Christian woman. It had never occurred to me that I can bless at the moment with my present I can declare prophetic words and blessings over my son. And in fact, he did it with one of his children and he was happy, he says, wow, how beautiful, I felt the presence of the Lord while I declared these words of life over my son. And benefit, not only do I believe that my son received it, but I also received it.

So we as parents are positioned in the best place, in the most strategic place to impact the spiritual life of our children. No one else has that privilege, no one else, just us.

So discern what the spirit is telling you. Put barriers where you need to put them in very practical ways. The Christian life is not only praying for our children, sometimes it is disciplining, it is confronting, but we are going to do all this in the spirit of the Lord, knowing that with faith he is going to do what we want him to do. Be blessed.

We are going to finish by praying for all this that we have discussed and if you want to stand up, I know that you have been sitting down for a while.

Lord we thank you, Father, for your presence in this place. I thank you for your presence in the life of all the mothers and fathers present here, Father. I ask you, Lord, that you bless the life of each one. Lord, I know that from above you put your hand of love on each of the fathers and mothers present. Lord, I know that you embrace each one, I know that you bless them, I know that you declare words of affirmation and love over each one.

Lord, I thank you because in your word is the answer to all the dilemmas of life, Lord, especially in this area of raising our children. Parents, I ask you, Lord, that you work in a powerful way. I present to you the children, the children, even those who have not been born, Lord, the little children, those of all ages, the young people of this congregation. Father, I ask that not one of them be lost, Lord, that each one of them, Lord, have a personal experience with you. I ask you, Father, that you especially use each person present here, whether they are a mother or a father, or not, Lord, to be instrumental in the life of a child, of a young person, to bring him to your ways, Lord, and guide them.

Father, in addition to being biological fathers and mothers, of doing everything else that a father and mother do, I ask you, Lord, that in this place you raise up spiritual fathers and mothers, Lord, men and women filled with your presence with your anointing, Lord. I ask you, Lord, that this is the way in which this land is healed, Lord, that these children are raised in homes where fathers and mothers are focused on presenting their children to you, Lord.

I ask you, Lord, that no impediment, nothing that the world can invent, nothing that Satan can think of, nothing, nothing, nothing, get in the way of the work that you want to do in the life of each child in this congregation, Lord. Thank you for the privilege of being a mom and dad, in your name Lord, I bless that ministry, that vocation of being a mother and father, Lord. Thank you for your love, Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen.