There has been some talk about how this generation will be the first American generation in some time that will not be better off than their parents’ economically. Much has been made about the youth unemployment rate, and the difficulties of today’s college graduates in the job market with underemployment.
While I cannot promise my son he will be more financially or materially successful than me in the same way my parents may have hoped for me, Psalm 119 allows me to confidently instruct him to be wiser than I, and stronger in the Lord, by being careful to be instructed by God’s statutes and His Holy Spirit:
“97 O how I love Your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
98 Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies,
For they are ever mine.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers,
For Your testimonies are my meditation.
100 I understand more than the aged,
Because I have observed Your precepts.
101 I have restrained my feet from every evil way,
That I may keep Your word.
102 I have not turned aside from Your ordinances,
For You Yourself have taught me.
103 How sweet are Your words to my taste!
Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 From Your precepts I get understanding;
Therefore I hate every false way.”
(Psalm 119:97-104, NASB)
God be praised that no credential or pedigree is required for instruction by His Spirit. I love that he will not need to wait until he is older than me to expect to walk in greater paths than his teachers. If God’s law is his subject, and God’s Spirit his tutor, I am both excited and nervous to witness the power of his soul.
My prayer now is that He may strengthen my character so that I will not hinder His fulfillment of this promise, but that I might rejoice in my son’s superior blessing.
😉