Just Something to Think About...

     "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all of the nations, and he will separate people one from another like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world...Then He will say to those on His left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels...And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." ~Matthew 25: 31-34, 41, 46

   We often despair about the condition of our culture's youth but a while ago while reading this passage in Matthew it hit me, what can we expect when we're raising a bunch of goats?! I know it seems like such a small thing, and perhaps it is, but after studying these verses I have felt convicted every time I call my children "kids". Soon after coming to this conclusion for myself I ran across a very interesting article on this same subject by Nancy Campbell of Above Rubies that put it much better than I could. I want my children to grow up being comfortable with the sheep so they will end up on the Son of Man's right side, what better way to do that than to raise lambs, not kids!

 I am in no way implying that calling our children "kids" will hinder their salvation. Leading our children in the paths of righteousness will obviously take a lot more work than just calling them, or not calling them, certain things. Proverbs 23:7 says, "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:". Consciously calling my children "children" has just been one way of helping myself and my little ones think of themselves as children of the King and sheep that know His voice.