Laying the Foundation Of A Great Nation

Ok let’s let our imagination run wild for a minute before you read this blog. Let’s forget that America started off the way it did with Columbus who discovered a place that already had people on it. How would you feel if you were the one to start the foundation of a great nation for example America or China even? How would you lay the first stepping stones of these great nations if God gave you the chance? Don’t answer yet. In my fifteen years of mothering my four rugrats I feel like they have taught me more than I have taught them. My children have shown me how arrogant, prideful, quick tempered, angry, and impatient I could and can be. They make me say things that I never thought I would say like, “Stop licking the carpet!” , “How many times do I have to tell you to take your foot out of your mouth?” “How many times do I have to tell you to get your face out of the dogs butt while he’s pooping!” or “I know she deserves it but stop strangling your sister!!!” Even though these dirty, toenail biting, murderers push me to the limit, they are almost everything to me. I remember when I just found out that I was pregnant with my last child. The overwhelming feeling was more than I thought I could handle. My youngest daughter was only FIVE months old when I found out and I had barely started sleeping the whole night before I was pregnant again. I could not help but be a little angry and doubtful because our life could not handle one more child, so I thought. My finances were barely making it and I was almost drowning from parenting my three children. I felt like a failure and for some reason feelings of embarrassment haunted me. I didn’t want to tell anyone of the new life growing in me for fear that they would see me as irresponsible.

It’s Not What You Want But What I Want

A few weeks went by and I went to a service at a friend’s church and decided to go up for prayer, not for the baby but for ministry in general. What was about to happen was going to be the single most amazing thing that had ever happened to me in my adult life to date. I did not get to tell the preacher why I was going to the altar before she looked at me and said, “You are three months pregnant. You are like Mary carrying the baby Jesus. This is not what you want this is what I (God) wants. This baby will be a prophet to the nations and his name will be called Emmanuel.” She continued to prophesy to me, but by the time she was done I was keeled over crying my eyes out and could hear nothing. What kind of God was I serving? To hear God say it wasn’t what I wanted but what he wanted was such a relief. Sometimes we forget that God knows what he is doing and HE is in control. It did not end there. A day or two later I started processing what happened. I went into my kids room and started crying again and the Lord spoke once again and he said, “You are not just carrying a baby but you are carrying a nation.” NATION!? What does that mean? When God referred to children in the old testament what did he call them…nation! I lost that. God wasn’t asking me to just love, provide or even raise a child. He was entrusting me to lay the foundations of four powerful nations! I think that in this day and age we have lost the value of the life of children. I know I did. One day when I was preparing a sermon I looked at the way God saw children. It’s funny because in the Old Testament they called children “nations” but in the New Testament he didn’t refer to them as that. When someone asked Jesus who the greatest in the kingdom was in Matthew 18:3-6, He called a…CHILD. He said,

“Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” ESV

Read that verse again… if we do not become like a child we will NEVER enter heaven. He doesn’t say if we don’t get into meaningless debates, or if you don’t wear the right clothes, or memorize scripture, or if you don’t give all your money to the church you won’t enter heaven. He said unless you turn (change) and become like a child you will never enter. Then he says the foundation of being the GREATEST in the kingdom is found in the personality of a child!! If this is your first time reading that take the time out to soak that in. If you are a parent and you are reading this while your child is sleeping, at school, work or even sleeping in your arms, God has blessed you with greatness at some point in your life. Greatness isn’t on the T.V. running our government or inventing something that is going to die out in a year or two. Greatness is sitting right there on the floor playing with their toys. I wept that day when I realized I was raising four nations but I was equally humbled when I grasped the idea that if I wanted to be great in the kingdom, I needed to learn from my children. I needed to teach them as they taught me.

It’s Just Suicide

Understanding just a small part of how God saw my children made me understand why the enemy aims to get me to lose my focus and leave them exposed and unprotected like we talked about two weeks ago. My mentality towards them changed so much. I felt humbled and honored for the opportunity. The other part of Jesus’ speech is that he gives a warning to all those that cause one of these little ones who believe in him to stumble. He basically says you better commit suicide because it’s not going to be pretty after that. Why? If receiving one of these little children is receiving him, then hurting one of these children is like hurting him. I am totally aware that Jesus used these children as examples so people may question this, but I can tell you that there is not one person who has ever harmed a child that can sit you square in the face and say there has been no consequence for it.

Take a minute and write down your thoughts on these questions, do you see your children as nations? Why or why not. Are you laying the RIGHT foundations for them or are you neglecting them? What bricks are you giving them to start this foundation: neglect, fear, shabby view of God, inconsistency, anxiety, doubt? Those bricks will not stand under the weight of God’s calling and then attack of the enemy. If you need help in undoing some things you feel will hurt your child in the long run, comment below at your comfort level or email us. We would love to help.