We Touch The Future
Delivered at the Foster Parent Society of Ontario June 8, 2008
Church Service
Part 1
Proverbs 22:6 “Train up (set life patterns) a child in the way he should go (keeping with his natural bent or gifts) and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Genesis 1:11-12 God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind whose seed is in itself, on the earth”, and it was so.
And the earth brought forth grass and herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, who’s seed is in itself according to its kind, and God saw that it was good.
Seeds of Greatness
What are these seeds that we want to plant? Are they special genes, transmitted to offspring by superior parents? Are they in-born talents? Are they seeds of exceptional learning abilities or intelligence quotients (IQ)? No! The Seeds of Greatness are not dependent upon gifted birth, the inherited bank account, the intellect, the skin deep beauty, the race the colour or the status. The Seeds of Greatness are attitudes and beliefs that begin in children as baby talk, as do’s and don’ts, as casual family chatter, bedtime stories, almost un-noticed, delicately transparent ideas, like flimsy cob-webs, at first----then, with years of practice, become like unbreakable steel cables to shackle or strengthen our characters throughout the rest of our adult lives.
The children of Israel were commanded in Deut. 6:6-7 To teach diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
These life patterns are caught as well as taught. The seeds that we plant are seeds of success. So what is success? “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.” It means that when we are working or moving toward something we want to accomplish, especially when that something brings us respect and dignity as a member of the human race, we are succeeding.
It is not what you get that makes you successful; it is what you are continuing to do with what you’ve got.
Total success is the continuing involvement in the pursuit of a worthy idea, which is being realized for the benefit of others---rather than at their expense.
