Good Reputation of Our Children

When our children were born, they were our pride and joy. There was nothing we would not do for their personal growth, emotionally and physically. I used to take a cassette player and play classical music over Tammy’s belly so that the unborn child would be well cultured. Maybe it worked, at least one of the older kids love that kind of music today.

I truly think every parent hopes for the best for their children. Regardless of how the children turn out, the parent I would hope, seeks their best future. I know that this might be a false statement for many people who are reading this, because their parents were not good, nor sought their best interest. I pray that is the exception rather than the rule.

I must admit that raising children is a hard job. I often told all three kids that we had a responsibility to produce well educated, respectable children who loved the Lord. That was the goal. We didn’t always make them happy, but they always knew we loved them.

One part of parenting is that each child bears your name when they go out into the world. When a child acted up in school, and the principle called, it was because my name bearer had made a bad choice which reflected on me as their parent. If their behavior was poor, it was my responsibility to correct that negative behavior so that it was not for my lack of instruction, but their will to disobey.

The Apostle John’s letter Gaius gives a beautiful place for understanding the reputation and respectable child concept.

3 John 1:3-4 “It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”

Verse 4 is probably the greatest hope of a Christian parent that their children are walking in the truth. But that is not always the case, and not because the parents did not take their responsibility to raise up a faithful child. Yet the context of the text is a relationship that John had with other children of God within the church of Jesus Christ, and not about parenting.

However, it remains a valid truth that Christian parents have no greater joy than to hear that their children have a good name, especially if that reputation is within the community of faith of Christ Jesus. When this happens, they reflect not just our hard work in raising children, more importantly that they are His children as well.