Do Not Despise Small Beginnings
As mom’s I think we are in a unique position to encourage our children’s giftings. Often we can see the beginning of what God is doing in our children’s lives before anyone else can. Sometimes the gifting starts small, like a glimmer. Let’s look at Zechariah 4:10 New American Standard Bible:
Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.
A little history here…the Israelites had just returned from their captivity in Babylon and were faced with the huge task of rebuilding the temple. This task seemed overwhelming. The temple lay in ruins. But it was in the midst of this, that God chose to speak a word of encouragement to the people. God spoke for the people to rejoice in small beginnings, because it is in small beginnings that there is HOPE for the completed task.
I am not sure about you, but I can certainly relate to this situation the Jewish people were facing. I remember feeling overwhelmed by the task of raising children. The task of raising these little people to love Jesus. The task of raising these little people to stand strong in this society we live in. I also needed a word of encouragement from the Lord for the task of parenting.
So God exhorts us to rejoice when we see small beginnings of His work. Small beginnings are by nature small, but they are BEGINNINGS, and beginnings offer hope toward what God is building in our children’s lives.
One of our daughters has a gift of intercession or prayer. When she was little and I was putting her to bed, I would sing to her and we would pray. Every night, and I mean EVERY night, as we prayed for our family, she would want to pray not only for our immediate family but for our entire extended family. And we have a big family! At the time, this was 36 people! But we did-we prayed for all of them, every night. I’m going to be honest here, that this was a little annoying that she insisted on praying for every single person every single night, but I did pray for them all with her.
Also, I taught our children to pray whenever they heard an ambulance go by. We prayed that God would comfort the person and that the person would cry out to God in their time of need. If I happened to forget, this child ALWAYS reminded me to pray when she heard an ambulance go by. Even as a young adult, she recently told me that she still prays when an ambulance goes by.
This is the same child, who at age 8, I told her about a little boy who was in desperate need of a kidney. Then every night for the next 6 weeks, she reminded me to pray for this little boy when we said prayers together at night. She remembered on her own to pray for him until we found out how he was doing. And the little boy got a new kidney.
These all seemed like small things, but what I didn’t realize at the time is that these were small beginnings in her gifting for prayer. I am so glad that I didn’t rush her through praying for every member of our extended family every night. Or that I did’t say to her, “No, we’re not going to do that. It will take too long.” I am so glad that I prayed with her for every ambulance that went by. And that I prayed with her every night for 6 weeks for the little boy who needed a kidney. Mostly I’m so glad that without realizing it, I was planting seeds in her of the importance of prayer and without knowing it, I was encouraging her gift of intercession.
So, mom’s, this is just an encouragement, to realize that some times our children’s giftings start out as small beginnings, and to
NOT DESPISE SMALL BEGINNINGS, BECAUSE THEY MIGHT JUST BE THE START OF HIS WORK IN OUR CHILDREN.
In His Love,
Suzanne
Mom Morsels 