I gave birth to three blocks of wood.........

Well not technically but let me explain. Psalm 127:3-5 says

" Behold children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. As arrows are in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. Happy, blessed, and fortunate is the man whose quiver is filled with them!"

Basically children are arrows in our quiver ( the pack a warrior slings on his back to carry arrows).

This is such an awesome scripture that God keeps placing on my mind. I am a warrior inChrist army. God has given me arrows for my quiver. The thing is they don't start out being arrows. He gave them to me as blocks of wood that need to be shaved, cut, and molded into arrows.

What??????

Well do you know anyone that has given birth to a child that came fully equipped with the blessed character qualities needed to navigate through life? No? Me either. Pretty much all the kids I have come in contact with radiate with sin...sin and more sin...

With my first block of wood I thought I was doing pretty good. I was taking great care of it, bathing, feeding, entertaining, disciplining and keeping it safe. Then one day I read Ps. 127:3-5 and came to the realization that I was not doing with the wood what God intended for me to do with it. You mean I have to make an arrow out of this. I don't know how to do that. I am clueless. I read a few books, looked on line, read some more, reflected on my parents technique, and tried out the concepts on my blessed block of wood. Before I knew it the block was looking rather mangled. I shaved parts that I shouldn't have and then tried to put them back. You get the picture.

Surprisingly God gave me another one. Two blocks of wood.... One looks much better than the other of course at this point but being the strong-willed person that I am, it didn't take long before I managed to put marks all over the new one. It wasn't until I saw the magnificent arrows that someone else had that I realized that I needed God to show me how. In all brokeness of heart I cried out to Him.

Slowly He is teaching me how to shape the third block of wood and how to repair and reshape the other two. Fortunately for me my blocks of wood have not come to the point of where they have actually taken the shape of an arrow yet but my first one being four years old is pretty close. I strongly believe that we build their character in the first 5 to 6 years of their life (shaping them into an arrow). It is in the next few years that we actually learn how to shoot the arrow; placing it in our quiver, loading it in our bow, guiding it in the right direction, aiming it at the target and eventually letting go.

What do your arrows look like? How many do you have? Is it enough? Do you have mangled pieces of firewood?

God I pray that the little ones you have given me become wonderful arrows that will soar through this world and head straight to the target and not miss the mark. Use me Lord in any way to continue to mold them into what you want them to be. Teach my stubborn heart.