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by Althea S. Miller
FIRST X oue
to her unspoken question, “What can you do to help harvest the wheat?” This stay-at-home mother has a harvest field right under her roof! Nine souls lent to her, a trust from the Lord. “ Acres of diamonds” in her own back yard. She dare not be a has-been. If every parent won his children to Christ there would be no problem of reaching the lost for there would be no unsaved. Acres of diamonds; 0 dear Father, thanks for rekindling that first love. Keep it burning with consuming passion. On into the morning mother tack led work which seemed never to diminish. Parents must be failing to wdn their young to Christ if ju venile delinquency reports are true. Christian parents are failing. A passage from the Book of Judges now occupied mother’s thoughts; “ . . . there arose another generation after them, which knew not the L ord , nor yet the works which he had done for Israel” (2:10). You may well ask the question as to the reason for this tragedy. That the parents were at fault cannot be denied. Surely with a continuous r e c o r d o f deliverances b y the mighty hand of God they had taught their own c h i l d r e n about God. But the record tells us they left behind them a generation of chil dren who had no knowledge of the living God. This tragedy is being re-enacted today, notwithstanding our show of pompous church build ings, wide distribution of the Bible and much talk about religion. If we carefully examine some of the rea sons which contributed to the fail ure of Israel’s parents we will find the key to our own present-day failure. Incomplete obedience to the
“Dear Lord, bless daddy as he preaches so that souls will be saved because the fields are white to the harvest but the l ab o r e r s are through.” This prayer at family worship by a lad nearly seven had a startling reaction on his mother. It made her think with cleansing clarity. If the powerlessness of the professing church today is any criterion, many of her orthodox members are “ has-beens.” The flush and warmth of their first love has cooled to a tepid laissez-faire. They are resting on the laurels of yester year’s accomplishments. “ Say, mother,” I asked myself, “ are you a has-been? Before mar riage and the acquisition of nine children, you really were busy serving the Lord in a public way, working e s p e c i a l l y with young people’s groups. Now you are pretty much of a stay-at-home. The fields are whiter now than they were in your girlhood because we are closer to the time of the Lord’s return, but what can you do about it? What can you as an individual do to harvest the wheat?” As this mother looked at the lad who had quoted the Scripture incor rectly she felt a sudden surge of gratitude that he knew most of that verse. She silently prayed that he would literally thrive on God’s Word all the days of his life. Now mother’s eyes rested momentarily on each of her children as they knelt in this time of family prayer. Some were restlessly awaiting the final amen from daddy. An older son looked at his watch and won dered if he’d get that next bus to school. Two other older children were thinking; their prayers had showm some heart searching. The baby stirred and smiled contented ly. Suddenly mother had the answer
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1* For one pen ny a day you can become one of the supporters of our Is abelle Orphanage at Pusan, Korea. 2 . If you wish to invest one penny a day for the little orphans of Korea, we will send you a bank mounted with beautiful wooden figure made by our teenage boys.
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