I believe that vision determine ones actions and decisions in life. Of all the things that I try to envision in the future, what I look forward to is how to be a better husband, and a father someday. I have my own fears and doubts whether I’d become someone I want myself to be. Especially when I stumbled upon this verse, Psalm 127:3-5. I got worried whether the “arrows” I’d be sending in the future will be sharp and as effective.
The Gap
As a youth leader, I can see the gap between parents and their children. I can see that there is a great disconnect. Gone are the days when children tremble in fear when they hear their father’ shouts. Now it is the fathers who fear that their children might have something to say against them that might hurt their pride and ego. So either they resolve to violence or physical or verbal abuse, or just let things slip away without instilling discipline. I am not yet a parent, so I can still identify how it is to be a child that often gets misunderstood. But I know I am slowly becoming a responsible adult, so I can stand in behalf of the fathers that not all whims has to be given in to, and not all generational changes has to be accepted as it is.
I can also see how people values relationship too little, reducing it to a value as mere commodity in their favorite convenience store. Teenagers changing partners as calendar pages flip every month. The sanctity of marriage is being attacked incessantly; the moral values we have held on for too long has been denigrated, hence the rampant increase of absentee parents and broken families.
I know these issues has been around since time knows when, but does it really mean we just have to accept things and move on with our own respective lives? Forgive me but I refuse to. I’d like to make a difference for my generation and the generation I’ll leave when I get home.
The Challenge
There is beauty and order when we embrace what the Lord has purposely laid down before us. The reason why things went downhill is because we have disregarded our call as we go along our way. We have allowed the enemy to snatch the things we have to give much importance. We have allowed the enemy to steer the wheel for us, while we watch and observe how society’s moral and spiritual values break into pieces.
But it is not too late.
I say this to all young, adult man out there. God has given us something to embrace – that is the role to “man up” and take possession of the steering wheel once again. We can no longer afford another generation of failed marriages, broken families, juvenile delinquents, grieving daughters, fatherless sons and hurting wives.
We have to prepare our quivers. A quiver is an archer's portable case for holding arrows. We have to prepare ourselves for battle. No, the battle is not against our family members – we have to protect them. The battle is against the scurrying degradation of values and spiritual drought that pesters our loved ones.
Cliché it may sound but slowly, yet surely, let us redeem what was once ours, and send our “arrows” as sharp and effective as the Lord wants us to be.
Children are a heritage from the Lord,
offspring a reward from him.
Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are children born in one’s youth.
Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their opponents in court.
The Gap
As a youth leader, I can see the gap between parents and their children. I can see that there is a great disconnect. Gone are the days when children tremble in fear when they hear their father’ shouts. Now it is the fathers who fear that their children might have something to say against them that might hurt their pride and ego. So either they resolve to violence or physical or verbal abuse, or just let things slip away without instilling discipline. I am not yet a parent, so I can still identify how it is to be a child that often gets misunderstood. But I know I am slowly becoming a responsible adult, so I can stand in behalf of the fathers that not all whims has to be given in to, and not all generational changes has to be accepted as it is.
I can also see how people values relationship too little, reducing it to a value as mere commodity in their favorite convenience store. Teenagers changing partners as calendar pages flip every month. The sanctity of marriage is being attacked incessantly; the moral values we have held on for too long has been denigrated, hence the rampant increase of absentee parents and broken families.
I know these issues has been around since time knows when, but does it really mean we just have to accept things and move on with our own respective lives? Forgive me but I refuse to. I’d like to make a difference for my generation and the generation I’ll leave when I get home.
The Challenge
There is beauty and order when we embrace what the Lord has purposely laid down before us. The reason why things went downhill is because we have disregarded our call as we go along our way. We have allowed the enemy to snatch the things we have to give much importance. We have allowed the enemy to steer the wheel for us, while we watch and observe how society’s moral and spiritual values break into pieces.
But it is not too late.
I say this to all young, adult man out there. God has given us something to embrace – that is the role to “man up” and take possession of the steering wheel once again. We can no longer afford another generation of failed marriages, broken families, juvenile delinquents, grieving daughters, fatherless sons and hurting wives.
We have to prepare our quivers. A quiver is an archer's portable case for holding arrows. We have to prepare ourselves for battle. No, the battle is not against our family members – we have to protect them. The battle is against the scurrying degradation of values and spiritual drought that pesters our loved ones.
Cliché it may sound but slowly, yet surely, let us redeem what was once ours, and send our “arrows” as sharp and effective as the Lord wants us to be.
Redeeming What Was Once Ours
Reviewed by Marts Valenzuela
on
May 28, 2018
Rating:
Reviewed by Marts Valenzuela
on
May 28, 2018
Rating:
