April 20, 2023

I Kings 1: 6 His father had never interfered with him by asking, “Why do you behave as you do?” He was also very handsome . . . (NIV)

A wise parent uses every opportunity to teach children about God.*

Many good parents despair over where they went wrong when their children grow into adults who abandon the family’s values. And then there are children who turn out well even though they had bad parents. It’s a puzzling phenomenon, but you can be pretty sure what kind of adult a child will become if his parents never “interfere with him” about his behavior. The father in this passage: King David. The son: Adonijah, spoiled, good-looking rich kid run amok.

We could point fingers at David for his poor parenting skills. On the plus side, he surely provided for his son’s physical needs, and perhaps showed him what it was like to be a man after God’s heart. But clearly he neglected to provide the discipline and attention the young man needed. We might argue that the mother’s influence was a factor in Adonijah’s wild ways since his brother Solomon, who had a different mother, didn’t turn out so badly.

This verse has been in my “on deck” file for a very long time. I have scrolled past it a hundred times, intrigued but not inspired. Until now. That tells me that one of my readers needs to see this today. To you, I say: Do the best you can. Love your child. Interfere with him constantly. Pray without ceasing. Be a good role model. Don’t wonder where you went wrong - but never give up on your rebellious child, just as God never gives up on you.

When my children were wrong, I needed to correct them . . . when my children were lost, I didn’t correct them, I searched for them.*