My dear readers,

(Excerpts from Building Firm Foundations, Dr SH Tow)

1. A delinquent Father

"When a young person falls foul of the law look for a delinquent father." This axiom is not always true but it must cause all fathers to think. Think of Eli the High Priest holding the top position as Judge among the people. Yet in his own house there was a breakdown of parental discipline. His two sons Hophni and Phinehas were profligates (immersed in vice and immorality) of the worst type. They committed gross immorality in the course of their religious duties. Such action betrayed their total depravity and defiance of parents, society, and God. They had lost all common decency. Their conscience was dead.

Now our chief interest is in Eli’s response to his sons’ sins. As any ordinary father he should have taken swift and drastic disciplinary action. As High Priest and Judge, such action should have been taken doubly quick and even more decisive. For the name of the Lord and His honour were at stake. When the son of an ordinary church member offends he injures the good name of Jesus Christ, but with the son of a pastor the damage will be doubly magnified. What did Eli do when he came to learn of his sons’ sins?

Sadly, he did almost nothing. Read his weak and almost apologetic protest in 1 Samuel 2:23-25. Reading between the lines it is evident that here was a father who was afraid of offending his sons, probably an established relationship of many years. Eli was more concerned with pleasing his evil sons than pleasing God. The material gains of the priesthood (from the people’s offerings) and the physical comforts over the years had lulled Eli into a spiritual stupor and dulled his perception. He had fallen into self-deception.

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a m an soweth, that shall he also reap" (Gal 6:7). Sooner or later, retribution from God will come. Eli honoured his sons above God. He had failed in his· parental duty. In one day all three met their deaths: the sons slain by the Philistines and Eli, on hearing the news, fell back and broke his neck.

A stitch in time saves nine. Discipline when young will save many heartaches in later years. Parents, know your responsibilities. Know God’s Word. Apply the truth and discipline in love, but start young. The sooner the better.

Above all, be good examples to your children. May the Lord grant us wisdom to know the right and the courage to do it.

2. Bouquets for godly mothers

The role of godly mothers in shaping their children’s character and future careers cannot be overestimated. Timothy could look back and thank God for a faithful mother and grandmother. President Ronald Reagan says this of his mother: "Nelle Reagan, my mother, God rest her soul, had an unshakable faith in God’s goodness, and while I may not have realised it in my youth, I know now that she planted that faith very deeply in me. She made the most difficult Christian message seem very easy."

Here are a few other testimonies to encourage our mothers:

Abraham Lincoln: All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.

D.L. Moody: All that I have ever accomplished in life, I owe to my mother.

Napoleon Bonaparte: Let France have good mothers and she will have good sons.

Susanna Wesley had seventeen children. One would think that she would have little time left for prayer. Yet she spent an hour each day shut up with God alone in her room, praying for her children. Her two sons, John and Charles, under God, brought revival to England and laid the foundation of the Methodist Church.

The prophet Ezekiel said, "As is the mother, so is the daughter." Like father like son, like mother like daughter. We cannot escape this inviolable law. Inevitably our children will grow up to reflect us like a mirror; good, bad, warts and all. Having experienced many decades of married life, I realise as never before that children’s upbringing is a challenge that takes all the manhood and womanhood there is in us, but God’s grace enables!

To bring an immortal being into this perilous world, neglect it, allow it to drift without direction, to go where it will, do what it chooses, and one day to see it reap an awesome harvest of delinquency and crime is surely something no one in his right mind will want to do.

And yet thousands in our progressive, permissive society are doing just that.

Godly mothers, godly fathers, may you do your duties well!

Lord, bless all mothers in our church. Make them good and godly.

God bless all readers.

Yours faithfully in the Saviour's Service

Dr SH Tow, Sr Pastor