有一年感恩節，我打電話回家問候父母。談話中，我問母親她最感恩的是什麼？她興奮地說：「我最感恩的是，我的三個孩子都懂得呼求主名。」我母親向來強調教育的重要性，但對她來說，比起在學業上表現出色，或能獨立生活，孩子們懂得倚靠上帝才是最重要的！

母親的這番話讓我想起箴言22章6節：「教養孩童，使他走當行的道，就是到老他也不偏離。」這不是一個應許，而是一個智慧的原則。大部分的孩子都可能在人生的某個階段遠離上帝，所以我的父母一直透過自身的榜樣，努力養育並教導我們要謙卑，敬虔地愛上帝（4節）。如今，靠著上帝的恩典，他們看見我們長大成人，且因著與上帝建立關係而受益良多。第2節說，我們都是上帝所造的。儘管有些孩子會回應基督慈愛的教導，但有些孩子可能需要更長的時間才會做出正確的選擇。我們要繼續為這些寶貴的孩子們祈禱，並安心等候上帝按祂的時間帶領他們。

母親的謙卑感恩，讓我看到生命中什麼才是最重要的。敬虔地愛上帝能讓我們在今生、永生享受屬靈的福分（4節）。雖然我們無法控制孩子要做什麼選擇，但我們仍有盼望，因上帝會慈愛地繼續在他們心中工作。

One Thanksgiving I called home to greet my parents. As we talked, I asked my mom what she was most grateful for. She exclaimed that she was most grateful that “all three of my children know how to call on the name of the Lord.” For my mother, who’d always emphasized the importance of education, there was something more valuable than her children doing well in school and taking care of themselves.

Her sentiments remind me of Proverbs 22:6: “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” While this isn’t a promise but more a wise principle, and many children do wander from God for at least a season of life, she and my father had strived to raise us to humbly, reverently love God (v. 4)—primarily through example. Now, by His grace, they were able to see us grow older and benefit from a personal relationship with Him. As verse 2 says, God is “the Maker of . . . all.” And although some children will respond to loving instruction in Christ, others might take longer perhaps to hear His voice. For those precious children, we continue to pray and rest in God’s timing.

Mom’s humble thanksgiving points to what’s most important in life. Reverently loving God yields spiritual riches for this life and beyond (v. 4). And while we can’t control what children will choose to do, we can rest in the hope that God will lovingly continue to work in their hearts.