What's Your Purpose?
Ben and I were having a discussion about what he wants to do when he is grown up. He told me he doesn’t know if he wants to be a zookeeper, an undersea diver, or an aquarium caretaker. I told him that he had plenty of time to figure out what the Lord wants him to do for a living. Then he asked me, “Well, what’s your purpose?”
I figured he wasn’t asking a “What’s the chief end of man?” question, though that would have been a good way to go in discussion. Rather he wanted to know what my career is. So I turned the question back to him. “What do you think my purpose is?”
“Hmmm. I don’t know,” he said at first. But on further reflection he said, “I know." I figured he would say something along the lines that I was a mother, that I taught him and his siblings, or that I cooked. (I was in the process of canning peaches as we talked.) Instead Ben said, "You watch over.”
“Yes, Ben, that’s a pretty good description of what I do.”
Though written to elders whose flock is the church of God, as mothers we can learn something of our duties to care for our flocks of children from Acts 20: 28 which says, "Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood."
I figured he wasn’t asking a “What’s the chief end of man?” question, though that would have been a good way to go in discussion. Rather he wanted to know what my career is. So I turned the question back to him. “What do you think my purpose is?”
“Hmmm. I don’t know,” he said at first. But on further reflection he said, “I know." I figured he would say something along the lines that I was a mother, that I taught him and his siblings, or that I cooked. (I was in the process of canning peaches as we talked.) Instead Ben said, "You watch over.”
“Yes, Ben, that’s a pretty good description of what I do.”
Though written to elders whose flock is the church of God, as mothers we can learn something of our duties to care for our flocks of children from Acts 20: 28 which says, "Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood."
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