In the first reading today from Sirach 17, we get kind of a short history of man. We see that God “put the fear of himself upon their hearts.” In essence, God has set into our DNA the knowledge that there is a God, and that we ain’t Him. Unfortunately, that message seems to get lost all too often, huh?
In the Gospel reading from Mark 10, Jesus says, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” Children are like little sponges. They soak up everything they see and hear. Too often we forget about the “see” part. We tell our kids how important it is to be good, polite and treat people with respect. The trouble is, they watch us live our lives a lot more than they hear the platitudes that we spout.
Our children generally tend to turn out a lot like us. We lead by example. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me.” Do our kids WANT to go to Jesus? Have they seen US going to Jesus? Are we praying with our children? Do they see us with our nose in the Bible occasionally? Jesus wants the children to come to him. But they learn to go to Him through us.
Father, help us to be better parents to our children. Help us to lead by example, showing them the way to Jesus. Amen.
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