Instilling A Legacy…
Proverbs 29:15 (Amplified Bible)
15The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left undisciplined brings his mother to shame.
My children and I spend a lot of time together for a variant of reasons, some of which people have not always understood, but I had to come to grips with my responsibility as a parent many years ago, realizing that God entrusted these two individuals to me and I needed to do what was right by them and pleasing and right in His eyes before all others. But I have learned over time that spending time with them was not enough, that it was important for me to instill in them certain disciplines, and certain values that could carry them and create in them a standard by which they live. You see I learned long ago that discipline is more than just the rod of correction it is teaching them by example, by conversations, open dialogue and hands on training. But it is by no means allowing them to become the adult in the house with more responsibility than I have. I am still the one God ordained to be the Mama!
My mother and my grandmother instilled in me a sense of discipline, they taught me how to cook, clean, genuinely care for people, work hard, to dream but they also instilled in me a pure love for God. As the mothers in my life there was never a question of love for me, yes we had chores in the house, but they showed us the way. They were not just screaming, hollering, and demanding of me, before I was ever released to do a chore they had shown me how to do it. They were not busy living their own life and leaving me to figure it out. Time was their greatest gift. They gave me their time, their talents and most of all their prayers. I will never forget the days when my grandmother would pull a stool up for me in the kitchen, so I can have an impromptu cooking lesson. Those times were precious and instilled a love for cooking, a sense of accomplishment, and not hatred. But I remember my Grandmother and my mother rising early in the morning to pray and going to church and being the same beautiful people that they were at home that they were at church. They showed me who God is and modeled God in front of me. They never did anything that would cause me to be undisciplined in the area of worshiping God and realizing what I was created to do. These women took moments out of their lives to teach me and to instill a legacy of love and God into my life. I was blessed I did not just have them, I had my Godmother, women in our neighborhood and my Aunts that disciplined me in many areas and gave me tools for life, they taught me strength and to be a survivor but the thing they did more than anything was show me the way as a daughter, a woman, a good person and a Christian, who not just spoke a conviction, but lived it.
How many of us as mothers or as women are taking a moment to do what God wants us to do which is minister to our youth, our children. Are we instilling a legacy into them, are we showing them the necessary skills to be Godly, men and women, mothers and fathers, students, co-worker, co-laborers in the gospel? Are we teaching then to be men and women that dream big, but have courage and convictions that affords them to live in a way where God is evident not just in the four walls of the church but everywhere they go? Are they young people that value themselves and value God and really know Him, because we have shown them? Are we taking the time to show them, lead them, and model in front of them what a real woman should look like, a Godly woman a woman of discipline and morals and conviction. Are we showing them who they should be becoming or who they should be trying to marry? When we look over our shoulders are we seeing young people who have been touched and shown some things that can change their very lives or have we been so busy living that we forget to instill life in those lives entrusted to us? Are our children being left to themselves, unguarded, undisciplined by the mothers in their lives (whether biological, spiritual or otherwise) or are the women that they so desperately need to show them the way, missing in action, or just refusing to report for duty? We have a duty as women of God not to leave our children undisciplined, left to themselves because surely they will bring shame upon us if we do!
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