Taking Delight in your kids

We talked in the September 6 lesson about the impact it must have had on Jesus to have heard His heavenly Father say, "You are my beloved Son; I take delight in You!" We talked in the class I teach about how much that hearing that word of blessing from His Father meant to Jesus. We know He immediately after this He was driven into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Did you ever wonder if the Father's blessing helped give Jesus the strength He needed to resist temptation? We don't know, and I know we have to be cautious in going beyond what the Bible says. All we know for sure from Scripture is that the last thing Jesus heard from His Father before the temptation of the wilderness was the word of affirmation (Mark 1:11-12).

But here is what we know about our own kids. We know that they are driven into the wilderness of temptation every day. Often, we are the ones that drive them there. In our minivans. And we drop them off in front of their schools, and they spend the rest of the day facing every temptation the world throws at them.

How do we tell them we delight in them? What words of blessing do we speak over them?

Today, someone sent me this video of David Robinson's speech at his induction into the NBA Hall of Fame last week. What moved me the most was the word of blessing and encouragement he spoke over his sons. It is a great video from start to finish, but pay attention to about the 1:45 mark, when he talks to his boys. What a great modern-day picture of a father taking delight in his children. And I would encourage all you dads to find a way to speak a word of blessing to your kids today. Because we never know when we leave the house what temptations they will face in their day.