Beloved Son

Recently, I celebrated my son’s birthday. The following day, my Scripture reading included 2 Peter 1:17, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Peter was quoting the moment when God said He was pleased with Jesus.

Usually, a momma’s heart also tends to be pleased with her child(ren) - even when they are less than perfect. This incident caused me to search for the various verses that recorded the thought of a beloved son.

In the Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke told of two different incidents when God called Jesus His beloved son. The first time was when Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River. (Matthew 3:17, Mark 1:11 and Luke 3:22)

The second time was when Jesus took Peter, James and John up to a high mountain to pray and was transfigured before them. Again, God called Jesus His beloved son and instructed those 3 disciples to hear what Jesus said to them. (Matthew 17:5, Mark 9:7 and Luke 9:35)

Twice Paul referred to Timothy as his dearly beloved son (1 Corinthians 4:17 and 2 Timothy 1:2). Although Timothy was not a natural/biological son to Paul, he considered Timothy to be a “spiritual son” or a “son in the faith!”

This past weekend, I wrote a letter to my grandson, who will soon graduate as a Marine. I shared the verse in 2 Peter 1:17 with him. I also wrote that I was proud of him and of his daddy. My son was going to include my letter with his own to mail out. Later in the day, I asked if he had read my letter. He said that he had read it. I asked if everything seemed okay since the drill instructor had given guidelines for the letters. He said it was okay. As I was about to walk away from him, I felt led to remind him that he is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased, and I am very proud of him. His smile was priceless.

This made me aware of our need to acknowledge our children. When our children are young, we usually praise the schoolwork they bring home. We exclaim about the good report cards. We tell them how great their artwork looks. If our children are involved in sports, we brag to our friends about every game that is won. We tell others all the details of how our child played a part to bring about that win.

We may think that our children know how we feel about them, but do they? This is especially important as they become teenagers. Unless we verbalize our feeling, the enemy could be telling our teenagers that we are holding all of their mistakes against them. Few teenagers make it through those teen years without making some poor decisions. We must remember the poor decisions we have made in life and that God has forgiven us. Whether the decisions they make are great or poor, LOVE THEM ANYWAY.

We should make it a point to remind our children that, as this verse indicates, we consider them a gift from God.

Psalm 127:3 (ERV): Children are a gift from the LORD, a reward from a mother's womb.

It is our responsibility to raise them to reverence their Heavenly Father.

Proverbs 22:6 (BBE): If a child is trained up in the right way, even when he is old he will not be turned away from it.

When we see our children serving the Lord, we can be pleased that we have done a good job to raise them and that our children are making the right choices.

3 John 1:4 (TPT): It is the greatest joy of my life to hear that my children are consistently living their lives in the ways of truth!

We often use this verse for ourselves, but we should realize that it is just as relevant for our children.

Jeremiah 29:11 (ERV): I say this because I know the plans that I have for you." This message is from the LORD. "I have good plans for you. I don't plan to hurt you. I plan to give you hope and a good future.

During this season of the year, we have both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Please remember that God chose you to be the parent of your child(ren). God does not make mistakes. He intended for you to be the one to raise that person. He chose you! Show those children that He gave each of us the UNCONDITIONAL Love of God!