In our current, independence-driven culture that finds its greatest meaning in satisfying the self, the smallest members of our society are often pushed to the side. Today, many view children as an affront to personal autonomy, merely as depletions of our time, energy, and resources. This forces us to ask, is this an accurate perspective? How should we view these little human beings who need extra time and care? Are children an inconvenience or a blessing?
Throughout the Bible, we read countless passages that point to the importance of children and God’s design for them within the family. Contrary to our culture’s perception, Scripture teaches that children are a blessing from the Lord with inestimable worth and value, and we should seek to care for them in each domain God has placed us (Ps. 139:13-16; Ps. 127:3-6). That’s why the ERLC is committed to championing the issues of life and human dignity as we promote God’s good design for marriage and the family.
The value and blessing of children
The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 states, “Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord” (Article XVIII). This truth echoes the words of the psalmist, in which he refers to children as a heritage and a reward, calling the man blessed who has many children (Ps. 127:3). We know from verses such as Psalm 139:13-16 and Jeremiah 1:5 that God knows children from before they were ever conceived and that he intentionally creates each one, knitting them together in their mother’s womb.
From the moment of conception, children are human beings created in God’s image with inherent dignity and innate worth (Gen. 1:27). We also know from God’s command to Adam and Eve in the garden “to be fruitful and multiply,” that children are a part of God’s plan to fill the earth and integral to his good, original design for the family (Gen. 1:28). As children of our heavenly Father, we know what it’s like to receive God’s love and can use this love as the model for how we love children (Gal. 4:5, Heb. 12:6).
The role of parents in raising children
The BF&M 2000 later summarizes the role of parents: “Parents are to demonstrate to their children God’s pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth” (Article XVIII).
These responsibilities are neither light nor insignificant. Fathers and mothers have the special chance to shape our future society as they fulfill their God-given responsibility to train up their children in the way they should go, to care for them, and to model what Christ’s love looks like. But this is not necessarily a one-way street. While this great task requires much time, giving, and effort, parents also have the opportunity to have their hearts shaped in a unique way by their children and through the process of raising them.
The president of the Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes and Family Ministries, Rod Marshall, puts it this way,
“So often, newlywed couples cannot wait to begin their families. They understandably spend much time and deep resources to become parents. Are we open to the possibility that God desires for us to experience the joy of parenting so that by sacrificially loving our children we might find out more about God’s love for us and understand His sacrificial love in ways that have previously been a mystery to us?”
Loving children through foster care and adoption
While God’s design for the family is perfect, sadly, the fall has affected our earthly, normative experience of family (Gen. 3). Many couples who desire the good gift of children are not able to have them because of struggles with infertility. Similarly, some single men and women never have the choice to get married and have children. Because of sin’s effects, whether through death, harmful decisions of their biological mother and father, or otherwise, many children are deprived of the safe and secure home God intends for them to have.
Many families have the opportunity to mirror God’s redemptive and adoptive love for us to children who are experiencing the painful effects of the fall. Marshall explains the importance of the church filling this important gap:
“If we believe that we are created in the image of God and that God has made himself known to us as our Heavenly Father, then we also must reflect his image as it has been revealed to us that He is a Father to the fatherless (Ps. 68:5). Children in need of a kinsman redeemer should find within the walls of our churches safe and loving homes in which they can be protected and nurtured as we reflect the Imago Dei in a world that is broken and hurting.”
Within the Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist children homes are helping to provide this vital care to children and families in need of protection and assistance. Executive Director of the Baptist Children’s Village and Family Ministries in Mississippi, Sean Milner, underscores the importance and difficulty of caring for the fatherless. He urges us, “A genuine kindness toward a child in crisis, no matter how small, can change the child’s future. Absolute need is never attractive. It is easy to walk on the other side of the road. God did not. So, neither should His people.”
By caring for the fatherless and children in crisis, foster and adoptive families display the restorative love of God in the midst of a sinful and fallen world. These parents provide a stable and secure, loving home that can turn a broken situation around and help children to flourish. This type of love imitates the love and adoption we have experienced as children of our heavenly Father and is one way to powerfully display the gospel, as we fulfill our duty to care for the orphan and the vulnerable (Gal 4:5; Eph. 1:5; James 1:27).
We all play a role in caring for children
While this responsibility to raise, care for, and disciple children primarily falls to parents, it is by no means limited to parents (or married individuals). As members of our local churches, we all can play a large role in loving children and displaying to them what it looks like to walk faithfully with Christ. Whether diligently serving in children’s ministry or simply taking time to talk with the little boy or girl who sits next to you in church, we have the ability to spur on the faith of these little ones. Our actions and attitudes have the power to shape their understanding of who Christ is and what his people are like.
Even just by spending time with children, we can also learn from them and be reminded of what it looks like to innocently and simply trust the Lord. Far from belittling or rejecting children, Jesus told the disciples to, “let the little children come to me” and pointed to children as an example of what our faith should look like (Matt. 19:13-14; 18:1-5).
So, as your child asks “Why?” for the hundredth time today, as you hear a baby cry in the grocery store, or as another child knocks into you at church, may we pause and walk in patience, praising and thanking the Lord for these good gifts he has placed around us.
