As parents, we want our children to honor us. This is why we teach them to memorize the verse, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.” We can make this easier for our children when we are credible messengers who have genuinely submitted to our Heavenly Father, saying, “Not my will, but Thine be done.”

If wives are the mirrors of our spiritual condition as men, then children are the magnifying glasses. They will help us discover the tiny pieces of leaven (hypocrisy) in our lives which prevent us from being credible messengers of God’s Word. God gave Jesus the task of being a credible messenger to us and for us. This is seen in John 15:15, where He said, “For all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”

Seven Characteristics of a Credible Messenger

1. Genuine spirit of humility
2. Controls his tongue and emotions
3. Continual spirit of gratefulness
4. Virtuous spirit
5. Accepts each person the way God created them
6. Recognizes individual worth and potential
7. Earns the right to be heard

Three Things We Model as a Credible Messenger

1. Mercy – we model mercy because we have first received it. “God loved us while we were yet sinners.”
2. Truth – we model truth by the principles we govern our life by. “The Truth shall set you free.”
3. Vision – we model vision by having a future full of hope. “Without vision, the people perish.”

Posted by Chris Hogan on Thursday, June 15, 2006 at 12:21 PM