Lord, I Want To Be Just Like You

“Lord, I wanna be just like You, ‘cause he wants to be just like me. I want to be a holy example, for his innocent eyes to see. I want to be a living Bible, Lord, so my little boy can see. I want to be just like you, ‘cause he wants to be like me.”

This past Thursday was my 36th birthday. I celebrated with so much gratitude. In one year we have sold our house, packed up a moving van and moved to Colorado, started an amazing career with Focus on the Family, been diagnosed with a life-threatening brain aneurysm, undergone major brain surgery and recovery, lived for 5 months with an eye patch over my useless left eye, bought a new house and as of a week ago, seen the Lord heal my eye. Other than that, it’s been a pretty dull year.

For my birthday, my three boys gave me a CD by Phillips, Craig and Dean. They had so much excitement built up inside of them, I thought they were going to explode. They watched intently as I opened the much anticipated present. We placed it into the CD player in the car. I stayed parked as I wanted to relish this moment with my boys. I would have done anything to capture their smiles of excitement as the words began to unfold before us. My oldest son, Gabe, had tears in his eyes as we listened.

What a precious gift! Do we fully realize the responsibility of raising our children to chase after our Maker? Modeling Christ for our children may well be the third most important task we will do on this tiny blue planet. The first is to fulfill our commitment to our Lord, and the second is to fulfill our commitment to our spouse. It’s funny that when we accomplish the first two, the third takes care of itself. It’s no coincidence that God had this already figured out.

When we love our God, and honor our spouse, our children will have before them the blueprint they need in order to grow up loving and honoring their God.

Evaluate where you are with your commitment to your God and to your spouse. If you took an honest look at where you are in these areas, how would you rate yourself? If you are failing the test, the best news is that there is a huge truckload of God’s grace just waiting for a heart that acknowledges its need. It is never too late to begin modeling Christ to your child. Imagine the legacy you will leave for your child. Not only can you model Christ, but you can teach them firsthand God’s amazing grace.

The gift of legacy lies within you. I pray your child unwraps it to find Christ inside.