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One of the things I’ve mentioned a lot through Stand Firm Parents is that we need to consider our parenting goals and those goals should go beyond this world and age. Often, we’ve not articulated our goals for our kids. We can’t be intentional in our parenting if we don’t. Thinking through these goals is important.
There are many starting points for us to begin to think about our goals, but I believe looking at the warnings in Scripture and especially those involving judgment.
These judgments are also where we should go to develop our ultimate parenting goals. They’re the end of the maze. I guess really, they are the “gates” to the end of the maze.
In modern American Christianity we don’t talk much about the final judgments, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still going to happen.
In Scripture there appears to be two main judgments, the Great White Throne of Judgment found described in Revelation 20:11-15 and the Judgment Seat of Christ which is explicitly mentioned in 1 Corinthians 5:9 but alluded to throughout the New Testament. These judgment moments are in the prophetic future, but our preparation for them end at our last breath.
The Great White Throne judgment is for all people. It’s a judgment if our name is in the Book of Life or not. Meaning it’s a judgment of salvation. The result is our eternal destination—the Lake of Fire or the New Heaven & New Earth. This is the big one. The ultimate judgment. Saved or lost—that’s the question.
Obviously, this ultimate judgment should capture our attention as parents and impact our goals.
The second judgment is the Judgment Seat (or Bema seat) of Christ. This judgment is for followers of Christ, and it’s an evaluation of our deeds. The question being, “Were we faithful?”
We see more detailed descriptions of this judgment in 1 Corinthians 3, where Paul writes about deeds being evaluated.
Jesus spoke of this judgment through the Parable of The Talents in Matthew 25 and the Parable of the Ten Minas in Luke 19. In each parable, Jesus tells about a master (Himself) going away but leaving servants (us) to carry out His work and grow His portfolio. When the master returns the servants give an account of their work. It’s here where the master tells those who were faithful, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
I believe we think that our faithfulness isn’t a big deal, we’ll just be happy to be there. That is true in that it sure beats the alternative, but I promise when we see Jesus, we will have wanted more than anything to hear, “Well done!”
Parents, I’m sure you’re aware of these judgments, but have they impacted your parenting? Don’t you think they should? I believe they should serve as the foundation of our ultimate parenting goals.
This is a Stand Firm Parents article from Stand Firm Ministries and first appeared on www.standfirmministries.com.
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