God's Word gives us the assurance that we will not be forsaken in our task to care for our children
- God's covenant seed.  Let us continue for a space to consider this truth.  God's people may be assured that
truly Jehovah shall give to them that of which they stand in need, in order to raise His covenant seed in the
fear of His name.

 Surely, when God's people become aware that they are about to bring forth another of God's
covenant seed, they may face the new situation with questions.  One may look realistically at the means with
which he is to provide for the expected child.  A look at one's financial situation may reveal difficulty.  And
as one considers the amount of room in his house, and other such things, he may be filled with a certain
amount of anxiety and apprehension.  How will one care for another child, how shall one even pay for the
new doctor bills, may be the questions that are raised.  Yet, for the child of God, these questions may not
remain unanswered very long before the light of Scripture.  God gives the child to His people, He also will
provide the means to raise the covenant seed.  This is as certainly true in the financial sense as it is in the
spiritual sense.  We read in Psalm 72:4 that God shall save the children of the needy!  It doesn't take an
abundance of money, and one does not have to be rich, in order to raise up God's children in the fear of His
name.  God cares for them!  As an example we ask you to appeal to your own experience.  Often in the
poorest families of a congregation one finds the richest life of faith.  This is God's way, often through trial
He causes His children to grow strong.  It is then true that to bring forth children may mean that we will
have to do without a luxury or two.  It may even mean that we must have older furniture and appliances than
the average American home.  Yet, what does this matter?  Our children, God says, are like olive plants
gathered around the table.  They are our riches!  Through them God brings His church to completion!  What
do all the riches in the world have in comparison to them?  Not one thing!  And for these wonderful children
Christ died!  They are God's people, and they bring Christ again!

 Therefore, God's people must pray for children of the covenant.  We must not follow the fancy of
this world and despise children, but rather, let us desire the children God sends.  Let us pray for them for
herein lies our riches, they are the strength of the body of Christ.  Pray for the children and for the grace to
raise them up as covenant seed.  Do not look upon the task of raising this precious heritage of God as an
unpleasant or difficult chore, but rather as a privilege given to you by God.  And then in the confidence of
faith, being assured willingly by God, lovingly undertake to lead, to guide, and to instruct the children God
gives you as His heritage.

 To raise our children in harmony with the will of God means that we teach our children!  It does
not mean that we let our children do as they please, as the philosophy and psychology of this world seems to
advocate.  But that we undertake to lead and to guide in the way of the Lord through our instruction.  hence,
the child of God must not look upon his children as burdens.  Do not complain every time that they come to
you for help, or to have questions answered.  Do not complain when they ask you to help them learn their
catechism.  Take time to instruct them in the way they should go!  Isaiah records God's word concerning
they that are instructing their children in chapter 54:13:  "and all the children shall be taught of the Lord,
and great shall be the peace of thy children."  Guide your children in the word of God!  Lead him in his
catechetical study.  Help him in his school work.  Teach your children in the home by the study of God's
Word, and through the singing of Psalters.  And as your children come to know God through His Word they
will have a peace that is pure and true.  Through this instruction they will come to understand their own
sinfulness and need, but also at the same time they shall see God as the God of salvation.  They will grow to
understand that though they are sinners, God loves them:  so much that He sent His only begotten Son to die
upon the cross to deliver them from all their sins.  They will come to understand that their God, Who loves
them, is sovereign, upholding and governing all things in His creation.  Hence, they have the peace that all
things must serve their good, their salvation, even as God's word states in Romans 8:28.  In this knowledge
they will have the courage and trust to face any portion God will send, they will have true peace in all life.
Further, you beloved, who instruct them walking in integrity may be assured that your children are blessed
after you, Prov. 20:7.  Therefore, walk as examples unto your children, instruct them in the truth, and they
shall know the blessings of Jehovah.

 Not only should we instruct our children, but this is emphatically our calling as God's people.  You
are aware that God calls His elect to be faithful in this instruction.  Many of the Proverbs refer to the
responsibility of the people of God as covenant parents to train their children in the way that they should go.
In Psalm 78, we also have a clear example of God's Word concerning this responsibility, beginning with
verse two we find the following:  "I will open my mouth in a parable:  I will utter dark sayings of old:
Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.  We will not hide them from their children,
shewing to generations to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength, and His wonderful works that He
hath done.  For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded
our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:  That the generations to come might know
them, even the children which should be born; who shall arise and declare them to their children, that they
might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments."  Beloved,
people of God, your children are God's precious possession!  Instruct them in the way of the Lord.  It is in
this way that the Lord preserves His church.  For in this way will the truth remain precious to God's people.
To emphasize this I would have you consider those churches that have de-emphasized the perching and the
teaching of catechism.  In those cases where this has happened within a few short years the truth is all but
lost.  God no longer receives the glory due unto His name.  the discipline of the church fades into oblivion,
and the church hardly remains recognizable as a church of Christ, if indeed it is.  This same thing can be
seen in an individual family.  The parents leave a church where God's Word is truly maintained for
something a good deal less, and say that we know the truth and won't forget it.  However, their children are
not so founded in the truth, and the result is that they receive not its comfort not its peace.  And there is the
continuing result that these children's children do not even know as much as they.  God keeps His precious
heritage in the line of truth, and your instruction and guidance are His means to accomplish this.  So again I
say, willingly instruct the children of the Most High!

 Now as you undertake this task with its serious responsibility, be assured that God will not forsake
these covenant seeds.  But He will take His heritage to His heavenly home.  Therefore no matter how dark
things seem to be, no matter how difficult times become, be confident that God shall provide His people, as
parents of His covenant seed, that which is needed to prosper them in the way of the Lord, a way that looks
to heavenly glory.

 Take then, upon your lips the words recorded in Hebrews 2:14:  "I will put my trust in Him, and
again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me."  When one does this, when one puts his trust in
Jehovah through the way of grace, one has the assurance implicit in Psalm 127:3.  When we care or our
children we are caring for God's possessions, and God will not let us fail.  God will bless His people, He
will bless them through their children.  He shall perfect His kingdom through the covenant seed.  So in faith
bring forth the children of God, and with a prayer for grace willingly, lovingly lead and instruct them in the
Word!