Like Plants and Pillars
Monday, August 5, 2024
Then our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants, and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace. Ps. 144:12, NIV.
Saturday night we were seated around the table as Uncle John led in the scriptural reading of the marriage ceremony and had the blessing. In the library hung a 25-year-old wedding dress with a man’s tuxedo next to it.
Two teenage sons had planned the surprise event and arranged the menu. One son and his cousin had blindfolded the couple and brought them to my house. But dinner with the extended family was only the beginning of what their sons intended for the twenty-fifth wedding anniversary celebration.
The boys told their parents what they should pack for their extended weekend. They put their father’s golf bag, shoes, and other items into the car without the father or mother knowing it. Then the boys arranged for their parents to spend a night in their honeymoon cabin on the lake, and then made reservations for a hotel and evening entertainment for the next.
As three generations gathered in the room around that large dinner table, I was thankful my grandsons had such a positive example of what a stable Christian home should be. There was no shouting, yelling, or confrontational episodes. The example of the grandparents had been exemplified in the parents and was being passed on now to the third generation. Solomon said it best: “Children’s children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children is their father” (Prov. 17:6, NKJV).
After much perusing of the wedding pictures from 25 years before, the boys chauffeured their parents to the cabin on the lake.
The next morning my daughter was surprised to see that her sons had stocked the refrigerator and even set the table for two. Not until then did they see the computer printout of the plans their teens had made for their parents’ trip to the Smokies.
What fun these young people had surprising their parents. And what fun it was for me to see the rewards of positive family relationships. Certainly when children are loved into maturity, boys become like “well-nurtured plants,” and daughters like “pillars carved to adorn a palace.” I love that word picture of a healthy family!
Thank You, Lord, for family.
Saturday night we were seated around the table as Uncle John led in the scriptural reading of the marriage ceremony and had the blessing. In the library hung a 25-year-old wedding dress with a man’s tuxedo next to it.
Two teenage sons had planned the surprise event and arranged the menu. One son and his cousin had blindfolded the couple and brought them to my house. But dinner with the extended family was only the beginning of what their sons intended for the twenty-fifth wedding anniversary celebration.
The boys told their parents what they should pack for their extended weekend. They put their father’s golf bag, shoes, and other items into the car without the father or mother knowing it. Then the boys arranged for their parents to spend a night in their honeymoon cabin on the lake, and then made reservations for a hotel and evening entertainment for the next.
As three generations gathered in the room around that large dinner table, I was thankful my grandsons had such a positive example of what a stable Christian home should be. There was no shouting, yelling, or confrontational episodes. The example of the grandparents had been exemplified in the parents and was being passed on now to the third generation. Solomon said it best: “Children’s children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children is their father” (Prov. 17:6, NKJV).
After much perusing of the wedding pictures from 25 years before, the boys chauffeured their parents to the cabin on the lake.
The next morning my daughter was surprised to see that her sons had stocked the refrigerator and even set the table for two. Not until then did they see the computer printout of the plans their teens had made for their parents’ trip to the Smokies.
What fun these young people had surprising their parents. And what fun it was for me to see the rewards of positive family relationships. Certainly when children are loved into maturity, boys become like “well-nurtured plants,” and daughters like “pillars carved to adorn a palace.” I love that word picture of a healthy family!
Thank You, Lord, for family.
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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