I Have A Dream for My Children
I HAVE A DREAM FOR MY CHILDREN–a dream I trust God to make truth. Even now I see evidence of His handiwork in them.
I have witnessed my children’s tenderness toward the elderly, their gentleness with babies, and their compassion for those of all ages who are have little to support them. I have seen them insist on truth when a lie would be more expedient and beneficial. I have seen them as peacemakers in sticky peer-group situations. I have heard them confess, “I am a Christian.”
My dream is not that they live a comfortable life, build an empire, or get on the cover of Time. Those things are nothing compared with my dream for them! Why should they settle for less than the kingdom?
I want my children to be at ease in the throne room. I want them to know their King deeply, intimately, intrinsically. I want them to walk with the King through dense forests, in lush valleys and along the mountaintops. I want them to lean, depend, and stake their lives on their King. I want their love for the King to be bound in loyalty so deep and firm that the strongest gale cannot flap it; the wiliest magician cannot make it disappear; and trial, temptation and persecution cannot tear it down.
Their faith must not be one of social obligation and lip service. Never would I want them to be satisfied with worldly traditions, coolness and rote. I want them to be vibrant, inventive and fervent in their pursuit of spirituality. I want them to wear out their Bibles, to feel and recognize the King’s touch on their hearts and to realize the breadth of worship, the height of a melodious heart and the length and depth of pure love!
My prayers and dreams are their faith. A faith they themselves build with just the necessary promptings and direction. A faith that outshines their mother’s, that warms others in its glow, and that brings a smile to their King’s face. A faith of love, hope, joy and peace. A faith that will lift them up, hold them down, and see them safely through the “narrow gate.”
I have a dream for my children. A dream that they will be crowned with the precious jewels of righteousness, and that their mother will rise up and call them blessed!
By Noreen Knox-Anderson