Arrows in the Hand of a Warrior

It is Thursday 6/7 and I was compiling my weekly Israel Prayer lists, and came to Youval and Valerie Yanay who lead the Revive Israel community in Yad Hashmonah just outside of Jerusalem quoting the well known Psalm 127 verse "Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward." from verse 3. I believe that even though I never bore children myself. But then they also quoted verse 4 and as I read it for the umpteenth time in my life, I got a sudden revelation of its meaning: "Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.”

I thought, how are the children of one's youth like arrows in the hand of a warrior? and suddenly I realized it is a word urging believers to spiritually educate their children when they are young, so they join us in the spiritual warfare where we are called to be warriors.

And likewise, the failure to spiritually educate your children in God's ways and the spiritual warfare we stand in, means the evil side will educate them another way - to be weapons formed against godly warriors, aimed at the wrong things, not completely aligned with the war as God sees it...let's face it, the war as God sees it is the only way that counts. Not as the social justice warriors see it.

In Malachi, God gives us a warning, that in the end times, if the hearts of the fathers are not toward their children, then the children's hearts will not be toward the fathers...or even the way of the Father God. God warns us to turn our hearts to them or else He will smite the earth with a curse. It is a curse that we see all around us in bold ungodliness doing unseemly things in the streets and in the houses of power.

Many are the lost and misguided children and grandchildren of many of us walking with the LORD. It is never too late to be the kind of parent who without compromising God turns their heart to the children, teaching them spiritual warfare in this world today. Instead of shooting their arrows at us, with prayer for them, encouraging them in the way to go, leading by spiritual example, there is every hope that God will see and bless them, turning them to the paths to walk in. It is not too late, grandparents.