December 20, 2025 Devo

I remember the day my first son was born. It was like a dream. As I stood there in that room, all I could do was stare at him. He was tiny, beautiful, and perfect. My heart was so full, I thought it was going to burst. All I could think about was how much fun I was going to have being a father. And there was a lot of fun along the way. But I wasn’t prepared for the work that came with it. I had no idea what lay ahead in the Terrible Twos or the Traumatic Teens. If I had, I might have been tempted to send him back!
We’re reminded in our verse today that children are “a gift from the Lord.” And that they are. There is nothing that makes our hearts soar more than our children. But the gift comes with a couple of other things that we need to keep in mind. One is responsibility. Once I became a dad, everything I did had to be filtered through that lens. Every decision I made would no longer just affect me or even just me and my wife. Now there would be another life, another GENERATION impacted by what I did. I think we sometimes forget that. This gift is PRECIOUS. This gift is FRAGILE. This gift comes with a mandate from God that we become the BEST men and women of God we can be. Our lives are no longer our own. We become the representatives of God to the children we are raising. Most of how they learn to see God will come through how they see US. Let that rock your world for a moment.
But also, with the gift comes a great opportunity. We get to pour into our children. We get to shape them, mold them, and fashion them into young men and women. We get to teach them how to live, how to love, and how to lead families. We get to show them how to listen, how to be compassionate, and how to forgive. We get to introduce them to God, His Word, and His Church. Ultimately, they will have to choose the path of faith and what kind of person they will be for themselves. But we get to plant seeds within them that will forever remain.
Kids are a gift. But they are gifts that come with extraordinary responsibility and opportunity. My prayer for all of us, whether we are parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, or just people who are around children, is that God will give us the wisdom and strength to make the most of our time with them. Let’s love them and lead them the best that we can in this short window of time we’ve been given. Treat them as the most precious gift God has ever given you. Even on the days that you’d like to give them back. That’s God’s Word for you today.