Aha!

You know that feeling, or sometimes that rut you get in, where you're reading along in your Bible, and you come across something that simply does NOT make sense to you? I'm sure we've all been there. Well, I hit one of those spots this morning. I was reading Galatians 4 where Paul is talking about Hagar and Sarah and their two sons. One is born in the ordinary way, and is under the law, while the other is born of a promise and is part of the new covenant. Ok, so I got all of that. But then he starts talking about how :25 "Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is a slave with her children." Ok, I can get that too. She corresponds to Mt. Sinai, because that's where the 10 commandments came from, and thus the Law. Then :26 "But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. :27 For it is written:
'Be glad, O barren woman,
who bears no children;
break forth and cry aloud,
you who have no labor pains;
because more are the children of the
desolate woman
than of her who has a husband.' (Isaiah 54:1)"

I sat there looking at that for a bit, and then went back and read it another time thinking "Wha...?" Then it was like God just breathed the meaning of it into my mind, and it all made sense. And to me, it's something all of us mother's think about, worry about, and hopefully more than anything, PRAY about. See, he's saying: Be glad you ladies who don't have children, because more are the children who will be heirs of the law (unbelievers) than those who are heirs of the promise (Christians).

It's a battle, my friends. A battle for the hearts, minds and souls of our children. Teach them, train them, while they are young, for the Bible promises "... When they are old they will not depart from it."
Pray for your children to have a heart knowledge/belief in Jesus Christ. That they will have a personal relationship with Him. So many children grow up with only a head knowledge of God, and when that is tested, it is found lacking. By and large, their faith will not last if they're basing it ONLY on what you tell/have taught them. They must experience God for themselves.