The visiting preacher at a small village church I attended in Cambridgeshire, England, shared about his calling into the ministry. As a young woman, his mother had been deeply impressed and challenged by the martyrdom of the five young American missionaries in South America in January 1956, including Jim Elliott and Nate Saint. As a result, she dedicated her own life to missions; and after she was married, she prayed and asked the Lord to bless her with five sons to replace the five young missionaries who had been killed.

The young man I heard preach that Sunday evening was the youngest of five boys that the Lord blessed that woman with and each one of those young men was serving the Lord in full-time Christian ministry.

So many Christian parents miss the potential of training their sons and daughters to make an impact upon eternity. The Bible calls children arrows (Psalm 127:4). Our job as parents is to straighten the shaft, to sharpen the point and to trim the feathers so that when we shoot them into the world they hit the target and make an impact in this world for Jesus Christ.

Think of the children that God has blessed you with. Think of their potential and the difference their lives could make if you were to take the time and energy to invest spiritually and emotionally in their young lives.

Morris Hull, Home Life Ministries