Giving Up Children

I read this in "Shadow of the Almighty" today and was really struck by it. It is an excerpt from a letter written by Jim Elliot to his parents when he had determined that the Lord wanted him to serve in Ecuador. The letter is in the context of children leaving their parents to serve on the mission field, but the concept applies to children going places other than the mission field. Whether parting with your children as they go where the Lord leads them, or following the Lord's call as he takes you far from your parents, both should be done with joy in knowing the Lord's will is being accomplished. "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done...."

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"I do not wonder that you were saddened at the word of my going to South America...This is nothing else than what the Lord Jesus warned us of when He told the disciples that they must become so infatuated with the kingdom and following Him that all other allegiances must become as though they were not. And He never excluded the family tie. In fact, those loves which we regard as closest, he told us must become as hate in comparison with our desires to uphold His cause. Grieve not, then, if your sons seem to desert you, but rejoice, rather, seeing the will of God done gladly. Remember how the Psalmist described children? He said that they were as an heritage from the Lord, and that every man should be happy who had his quiver full of them. And what is a quiver full of but arrows? And what are arrows for but to shoot? So, with the strong arms of prayer, draw the bowstring back and let the arrows fly--all of them, straight at the Enemy's hosts.

Give of thy sons to bear the message glorious,
Give of thy wealth to speed them on their way,
Pour out thy soul for them in prayer victorious,
And all thou spendest Jesus will repay."