HUMAN CLAY: Shaping Children

Read Numbers 14:18.

When I studied art, I was given a lump of clay. It was placed on the potter’s wheel, water was used to moisten it, and then the proper pressure from my hands molded it, as the wheel turned. The beauty and usefulness of the vessel depended on my shaping of it.

In a sense, our children are human clay. Parents have a tremendous power to shape young lives while they are still pliable. Wait too long and the clay hardens and is resistant. Of course, the analogy breaks down, if pressed too far. Unlike a lump of clay on the wheel, our children have a mind of their own, and the sin within them can make them resist our influence. Still, that doesn’t alter that adults have great power in shaping young lives.

In the text, we see this declared. On the one hand, here are those generations that find forgiveness and God’s blessing which in large measure is because parents, grandparents, and other mature Christians have influenced them through their example and teaching to seek after God. On the other hand, there is the dire warning of one generation after another experiencing the judgment of God because they are rebels against His principles. If we fail in molding the next generation for good, then the cycle of failure is passed on.

It is a sobering responsibility. We need to fall on our faces before God, and ask Him for mercy and forgiveness for our own failings and plead for grace to enable us to shape the next generation for Christ.