Lessons From Illness

John 11:4 "...This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." 

My family recently went through a time of illness. It was not a serious illness; just colds. However, we have a newborn. If she would have caught the cold, the consequences would have been far more serious. Because of this, my daughter and wife spent about four or five days with her parents. The other four children (ages two to ten) stayed with me. It is not easy watching four children while cooking, cleaning, going to work, dealing with illness, potty training the youngest, etc. It was hard on all of us.

I believe it was Jonathan Edwards who said that God did not always send illness as a punishment for sin, but it should be a time of repentance and spiritual reflection. I have always told my children this when they have been ill. It seemed that God not only sent illness to help my children grow spiritually, but also for me. I learned to appreciate my wife more. What she does is very difficult, yet she manages to get it done. That would have been harder to realize had she not been gone for a while. Also, my wife was not here to help me with the children, so my faults at fathering were greatly magnified to the point where I knew there needed to be changes. The most important thing that I learned is that I had been allowing my children to be lazy. When I had to do everything myself with little to no help from my children, it quickly became clear that I have some training to do with them. I have been working at this, but deeply entrenched bad habits are hard to change. With hard work and much prayer, we are seeing some improvement.
I can truly say with the psalmist : (Psalm 119:71) "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes."

Teach Them Diligently

Deuteronomy 6:6-7

6"And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."

We, as fathers, first need to have the Bible in our own hearts and not just our heads. The word of Christ needs to dwell richly in us.  We need the scriptures in us in order to teach them diligently to our children.  As verse seven says, we need to use every opportunity to teach our children about the law of God.  Use every opportunity.  Turn the questions they ask into opportunities to teach.  When a decision needs to be made, let your children see you apply the scriptures to it.

For example, when the time comes to look for a different car, do you buy a new one and take out a loan or do you buy the perfectly good $7000 car and pay cash?  Apply the Proverbs.  What if your family, who knows you like new cars, sees you applying the scriptures and paying cash for the good used one?  Their respect for you will probably increase and you will be applying the Proverbs and Deuteronomy 6:6-7 by using the opportunity to teach your children.

What about when the offer of a promotion comes at work but it will mean compromising what is right?   Use the opportunity to teach.  What about a child joining a sports team?  Eating too much?  Being lazy?  Respecting those in civil authority? In the Bible there is guidance for all these and much more.

Fill your own heart with the word of God and then instruct your children diligently.