Broken foundations are costly and heartbreaking. No matter how beautiful or impressive a house is, the future can bring only trouble for a structure when its foundation is unsound. It is always better in the long-run to invest the necessary time and effort in getting the foundation sound and true.
This principle holds for growing lives just as surely as it does for constructing buildings. Without the proper spiritual basics a life is doomed to trouble in this life and destruction in eternity. Living without the knowledge of God’s truth is like putting up walls on sand or clay. Great efforts will be necessary to constantly patch and repair damage, and in the end, the walls will fall despite all effort.
The fundamentals of faith should be prayerfully and carefully laid in the life of a person before reaching the teenage years. Once we become adults, we begin building our lives. If we discover that the foundation we received is unsound, then we must decide whether we will start all over and rebuild, or keep trying to make due with what we have.
If we build a life on anything but God’s Truth then the struggles and temptations of this age will eventually find the weaknesses. Stubborn pride, frustration, or despair can easily persuade us not to do the difficult work of starting over from the ground up. Since anything is possible with God, lives can be remade successfully at any time. Better to get it right the first time, however, because we do not know when our life in this world will come to an end.
When we teach our children God’s Truth, then we are giving them the chance to build their lives on the Rock. We cannot save them or force them to be saved, but we can remove as many obstacles as possible. We can make sure that they know about God’s love and about his plan of salvation and blessing.
We advance God’s Kingdom when we labor to build firm spiritual foundations in the lives of children. Such labor is not in vain.
May God’s Spirit empower us to keep the faith alive in our own hearts and in the hearts of our children,
Brother Richard Foster
brotherrichardsblog.com 