Chapter Three T he N ew T estament speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ when He was child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him.” Our Saviour was brought into the world by the heaven ly Father to be the incarnate Son of God, to die for our sins, and to rise again for our redemption. The Lord placed Him in the home of Mary and Joseph. They must have been wonder ful people. Mary, it says in the Scrip tures, was full of grace. Joseph, His foster father, must have been a man of great maturity. It was our heavenly Father’s pleasure to give to the Lord Jesus, as an infant, a human father and mother to care and provide for Him. In addition to providing proper food and health for our children, parents must provide a proper home. It cer tainly does not need to be a palatial mansion, but rather a humble abode where the Lord Jesus Christ has the pre-eminence. Do you fathers have a little bench at which your boy can play? Does he use a hammer or a chisel or some other tool? Oh, you say, “He’ll dull the chisel.” Yes, that is exactly what he will do. But it is far better to have a dull chisel and a sharp boy! Sometimes we do not understand this. I knew of a teacher in Minneapolis who told of one of her experiences. Little Teddy came to school on one particular day and declared to his teacher, “You know what happened last night? I went to my first cub scout meeting. I went to the door of Jimmy’s house and his mother opened the door. She told me, ‘Who are you? Did you come to the Cub meeting?’ I said, ‘I sure did!’ Then she smiled and said, ‘Little Teddy, you just come right on in.’ ” He told his teacher about that three times that same day. You see, his own home was a place where his moth er didn’t want him around. She was afraid he might disturb things and make them a little disorderly. I ask
only a little boy by saying, “And the
Miss Leonie V. Soubirou, dean of the Biola School of Missionary Medicine, confers with Dr. E. Forrest Boyd, member of the faculty. you, “What is a home for, anyway?” I know a very fine Christian young man who has some very deep seated problems in his inner soul. Although his pattern of life is circumspect there are some scars on his psychological being. The background of his home was very fine with Godly parents. They, however, did not understand him. The home was a show place. The children had to play in 'the cellar or basement or go directly to their room. Woe betide them if they sat down in any other part of the house. There were covers over the furniture, cellophane still covered the lamps. Then, once every two weeks she unveiled them for a tea party so certain friends could come in and say, “My, what a wonder ful home you have; how beautiful, how clean it is.” This was all at the expense of her children. One of them grew up to totally repudiate the Gos pel. He said, “If this is the way .one is supposed to live, I don’t want to have anything more to do with the church.” The other boy used to come to me with some of his deep loneliness. He felt a sense of rejection. Problems were cre ated for the lives involved. Does our home belong to the chil dren? What about play facilities? Is there the proper amount of space for it? A few years ago in the Saturday Evening Post there was a very striking picture. The first segment showed the father sitting in his chair reading, look ing down at his son. The boy had some milk cartons and blocks. He was chug ging away playing train. The next picture showed the father greatly dis- 6
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker