In this sermon, the speaker discusses the common behavior of people when they receive a set of tapes on parenting. He expresses his concern about how some individuals immediately focus on the section about discipline, thinking it holds the answer to all their parenting problems. However, the speaker emphasizes that effective child training is not just about following techniques, but rather about addressing the heart. He highlights the importance of love and blessings in the parent-child relationship, drawing from the biblical principle that we love God because He first loved us. The speaker encourages parents to prioritize building a foundation of love and respect with their children, rather than relying solely on discipline.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA, PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Well, let's stand before the Lord in prayer before we get into the messages. Yes, our God and our Father, fill our hearts and fill our homes with your glory, dear God. We know that if you will do the one, you will do the other. It will be there, God. We thank you for that. Thank you for this precious song, these poems, Lord, that were shared with us. Thank you for speaking to our hearts through them, Lord. Now, God, we pray, yes, send forth your light, Lord, into our hearts. Oh, Father, we know you love our children way more than we can even know and understand, God, but we pray that you will continue to show us how much you love them. Show us how we can love them like you do. Do that, Lord, tonight. In Jesus Christ's name, amen. Okay, as I said this morning, this evening, we are going to turn a corner in our teaching emphasis and move out of the visionary aspects and into the practical ones. Tomorrow evening will be very practical, but this evening, I feel the Lord would have us to cover a very important heart issue that, yes, is very practical, but yet it's a heart issue. It's not nuts and bolts. It's not how to do this, how to do that. It's a heart issue. And so this evening, this first message is the key to obedience is blessings. John tells us in 1 John 4, verse 19, we love him because he first loved us. Although John is referring to God and our relationship with God, nothing is more true in a parent-child relationship than that verse right there. We love him because he first loved us. And that's the way it is with our children. They love us because we first loved them. This title holds the most profound wisdom that you will ever glean in child training. It is the fountain from which everything else flows. If you don't get this, it's not going to go very well for you in the rest of the time. Blessings is the fountain from which everything else in child training flows. I chose to use the word blessing because I'm afraid the word love has become a generic word. It has been watered down. And hey, everyone says they love their children. So I've chosen to use a different word, the word blessings. The picture of the word blessings is very revealing. If you study the word in the Bible, in the old and the new, in the Hebrew and the Greek, this is the picture that you get when you study the word blessing. It's a picture of overflowing. It's a picture of outpouring, giving, benefit, gifts, love and acceptance, favor, words of prosperity. These are what we get when we look at the word blessing. And by the way, God, who is our Father, is obsessed with blessing us. It is part of the Father's nature to outflow blessings upon his children. Think about the Beatitudes, you know, where it says blessed there several times. Consider it in light of our children. To be blessed is to be happy, to be envied, to be spiritually prosperous, to be filled with life and joy and satisfaction in God's favor, regardless of your outward circumstances. Now let me give it to you again. To be happy to be envied, to be spiritually prosperous in your home, filled with life and joy and satisfaction underneath your father and your mother's favor, regardless of the outward circumstances. That's how God blesses you, isn't it? I'm glad God blesses me that way. I need that kind of blessing as I stumble my way through life at times. I'm glad he blesses me that way. And of course, we look at the word blessings in Deuteronomy chapter 28 and we get a picture of a people who are being overflowed and outpoured by God with blessings on every hand. Blessed shalt thou be in the city and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shalt thou be when you rise up in the morning and blessed shalt thou be when you go to bed at night. Blessed shalt thou be when you sit in your house and blessed shalt thou be when you go out to do your chores in your field. Oh Lord, let us get a grasp of that concerning our own children, that our own children would feel such a blessing among their life that they could say, blessed am I when I get up in the morning and blessed am I when I lay down at night. Blessed am I when I sit at my father's table and blessed am I when I go out to do the chores in the morning. Oh, my life is blessed on every hand by my father and mother's blessings upon me. Brothers and sisters, there is a danger, a grave danger of passing over the aspects of love and blessings and relationships and quickly going on to correction and spanking and standards of holiness. I believe this is a grave mistake in fact. If you came to these meetings with your pen in your hand, ready to write down all the little lists of all the little how to's and how to do that and how to do this, you missed the whole reason for these meetings. It's deeper than that. It's much deeper than that. Now, that's part of it, but it's much deeper than that. I have been intrigued many times by human behavior concerning the tapes on the home. People will get a set of these tapes, you know, and there's 12 tapes in there and they open up the jacket and they look it over and they look at all the names and they come to this one over here. I think it's on this side called the Rod of Discipline. They reach into the middle of the set and pull it out of the middle and put it in their tape player and listen to it first. And immediately they think this is the answer. I've just found the answer to all the woes in my home. Oh, that hurts me, brothers and sisters. That hurts me. You know, I didn't understand that at first why that is done, but it grieves me when people do that. I used to wonder why, but I don't anymore. They think that spanking their children will be the cure all for all of their family woes. And guess what? They are dead wrong. The law is love, brothers and sisters. Jesus said it so beautifully in Matthew, chapter 22, verse 37 and 39. He said to the Pharisees there, these two beautiful statements. Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God with all my heart and with all my soul and with all their mind. And thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And he told them upon these two commandments hang all along the prophets. These words apply to everything that I will say in all of these sessions. Everything can be traced back to love and should flow out of love. Everything can be traced back to the same thing. Everything we've been talking about, everything we will talk about, every one of the how to's, every detail of it can all be traced back to. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all your heart and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And by the way, your children are your closest neighbors. Amen. They are your closest neighbors. Paul said it this way, though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profited me nothing. That was what was wrong with the Pharisees. You know, they did all the right things, but not out of love. We can neglect the weightier matters of the law as they did and only pass on a religion to our children. We can set out neglecting the weightier matters of the law and jump in with all these how to's and make things so heavy in our houses that our children will not prosper under it. The law is love, brothers and sisters. Make sure whatever you do, whatever you do, that it be showered with love because the law is love. Let me share a sad revelation with you. Years ago, when the tapes on the home were just beginning to circulate and people were asking for them and we were just beginning to realize it seemed like God is going to use these tapes and they started going out. I received many troubling phone calls in those days that people would say on the telephone, Brother Denny, your teachings on discipline do not work. Oh, they don't work. My child does not respond like you described on your tape. You said they would be my friend. They're not my friend when I get done spanking them. They want to run away from me. It doesn't work. Well, I must admit, when those calls started coming, I wasn't sure what to say. I was puzzled in those early days. I thought, Lord, what's wrong? They're giving me a true story. They're telling me that things aren't going well. They're giving me these woes of the circumstances and the responses of their children when they give them a spanking. What's wrong? I took this question to the Lord and I began searching the word of God for answers. And one day in my meditations, the answer came to me from the Lord. God said the difference is love. I realized we spanked our children in the midst of a loving relationship. We loved our children. We were close to them. They were close to us. And we spanked our children and we got beautiful results out of it. So I just got up and told everybody, hey, spank your children. This is what happened. God said the difference is love. So I thought to myself, OK, I'm going to test that. And then the phone just kept on ringing. The same questions came on the telephone and they said, we don't know what to do. Your teachings on spanking don't work. So I thought, OK, I'm going to test this now. And I asked them, dear parent, one question I want to ask you. Do you have a close, loving, flowing relationship with your child? Silence. No, the answer was always the same. No. And I realized right there that there was a bit of a blind spot in the teaching. And that's why two or three years after those home tapes were preached, we put this tape in there, the back of it. Blessings, the key to obedience to try to put the right balance in there on the whole idea and attitude of spanking. God's burden is for relationships. Malachi chapter four and verse six describes that very clearly, the burden that God has as he speaks about the children in Malachi chapter four and verse six and the fathers, the burden of God, there is relationships. That's what God wants. And out of that relationship, yes, there are many things that we must do, but it must come out of a relationship. And I found that these people did not have that relationship. There was a distance between them for who knows what the reasons are. There could be many different reasons, but they were there. And so when they picked up the rod to set their child straight, it just put a bigger wall between the two of them was there already. And that may scare you a bit, but that's all right. It's good to get sobered up sometimes. Maybe that's the kind of results you're getting. God is concerned about the flow of love between father and his children and children and their father. This flow of love is the foundation of all successful child training. Remember the first love relationship we talked about? That thing is supposed to just continue to grow. And as it continues to grow, there is a flow of love that goes back and forth. You know, oh, Papa, you are the best pop in the whole wide world. You know, my Papa's stronger than your Papa. My Papa can do more than your Papa can do. Why? You knew how smart my Papa was. You wouldn't say that. My Papa's the smartest daddy in all church. That's a little child talking about his father. Amen. And the glory of children is their father. It's supposed to be that way, that flow back and forth, father and child, child and father. And out of that relationship, all these other things fit together very beautifully. But if you don't have that one, you may get some benefit out of it. But you need that first. First things first. Amen. This first love relationship is supposed to be the foundation stone of a lifelong relationship of love. And if this relationship is lost through neglect or ignorance, problems arise early in the development of the children. And I'm sure that some of you could bear testimony to that even this evening. Mothers know more about this than fathers do. I have always enjoyed watching Jackie nurse the children. She didn't do it on the side. She wasn't reading magazines while she was nursing her children. She wasn't cooking something in the kitchen while she was nursing them. She would take them in her arms and look down at them while they were nursing and talk to them and touch them and tell them what a sweet child they were. And I knew what she was doing. She was building a relationship with a little baby, a relationship which is a bond that is made strong and continues so that she could minister to her children when they were growing older. But what about us fathers? Many fathers are confounded with the lack of respect and obedience that they get from their children, but they do not realize that it is there because of a communication problem and a relationship problem between them and their children. Many of us men, we do not know how to build a close relationship with a child. It's a flat spot in our life. It is a part of the desolations of many generations that Isaiah talks about in Isaiah chapter sixty one. Many fathers are crippled. Their fathers did not bond with them. And now we don't know how to bond with ours. How many of you men can say amen to that? You understand what I'm talking about. It's part of the desolations of the generations before us, men. But I'm telling you tonight, it's not God's will. You can learn how to be a loving father, an intimate man with your children. You can learn how to draw their hearts close to you and you draw your heart close to them. You can do it. This must be broken in Jesus name. And the wives can help us in that. My wife helped me tremendously in this. I grew up just like that. I didn't know how to build a relationship. I had zero communication skills. I didn't know what I was doing. But bless God. God gave me a wife who knew how to build relationships. And I learned from her and I learned from a heavenly father. And I said in my own heart, I'm not close to my dad, but bless God, by God's grace, my children and I are going to be close. And we are. We're close. God can change it, men. Many, many fathers feel there's no need to commune with their children until their children get older. They think, well, this is just a little baby. They can't even understand words. That's woman's work here. You take care of the baby when the baby learns how to talk. Bring it to me. Big mistake, men. That shows a real lack of discernment on your part. Just give the baby to the wife. No, no, no, no, no. You can begin to build a relationship with that little child way before the baby is even born. My children heard the firm, gentle voice of their father from the moment of their birth. And before when there were times that I needed to hold the baby and Jackie was busy with something, I didn't just sit there holding the baby, you know, carry up, get done, then you can take this baby back. No way. Oh, it's my turn to hold the baby. Bless God. I'm going to talk to that little baby. I'm going to tell that little baby about Jesus. I'm going to dream dreams of that little baby. I'm going to tell that little baby what a sweet little boy or little girl it is. And all those things went on. That's what the children heard before they could ever understand a word. You see, when we speak words, it's not just words, it's heart communicating with heart. And you can begin to build a close relationship with a child long before that child even understands the words. I love you, because if that love is in your heart, that child will receive the spirit of that love that is in your heart, though they do not understand the words yet. And that's when it begins. The root word of the word communicate is the word commune. Amen. Commune. That's heart to heart. That's what commune means. Heart to heart. Parents are the initiators of love, just like God is. We love him because he first loved us. How sad for a child to grow up with a disinterested father or mother. I tell you, it's a plague. And that plague, we are reaping the fruit of two or three generations of disconnected fathers. And we're just beginning to reap the fruit of one generation of disconnected mothers. Relationships, blessings, love, heart to heart flow. This is the foundation of everything else that we're going to say all week long. Oh, we must get a hold of it. Play with your children, play with them when they're young. There's nothing wrong with that. Get down on the floor with your little boy, with a toy tractor and I mean, get out there on the floor and make that tractor roll. It's very important. Plow the field, load the hay up in the back of the truck and drive it over to the other side of the couch and dump it out over there with him. Get out there and play with him on the floor. You say, come on, that's kids stuff. You don't know what you're talking about. That's the most important thing that you could do with a one and a two year old. Did you know that? That's no kick to me, by the way. I don't get any big kick out of getting down on my hands and knees with a little toy John Deere tractor and going vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom. I mean, I don't get much out of that. I'm not doing it for my fun. I'm doing it because I want to build a relationship with a little boy. I'm going to put the word of God in that boy someday. I want him to look up to his papa and think he's the best papa in the whole wide world. That's why I'm down there on the floor. Some of you fathers have a little girl. Sometime you just go into her little playhouse, you know, her little makeshift playhouse, and you go in there and say, I think I'd like to play house with you for a little while. Oh, you'll see her face light up real fast. You just wiggle yourself in that little playhouse and sit down in that little chair that's in there and pick up her little baby doll and hold it in your hands and start to rock it like this and talk to it. You just talk to it. Nice little baby. Oh, my. What a nice. What is your baby's name? Oh, Susie. Susie, you're such a nice little girl. And by the way, while you're rocking little Susie, put one eye on your little girl's face and see what she's doing. She will be looking at you with eyes of adoration. I guarantee it. She'll be thinking, my papa loves my little baby. I've got a good papa. He loves my little baby. I love my little baby. And papa loves my little baby. I've got a good papa. You get it? Relationships. That's how you build a relationship with a little child. Someone said to me some time ago, brother, how do you get your 12 year old to talk to you? My 12 year old won't talk to me. How do you get your 12 year old to talk to you? Oh, I said, hey, that's no problem. Here's how you do it. You let him talk your ear off when he's five years old and you talk his ear off also. If you let him talk your ear off when he's five years old and you talk his ear off when he's five years old, guess what? He'll still be talking your ear off when he's 12 years old. Bless the Lord. And when it's time for him to open up his heart and say some of the most important things that are going on inside of him, guess what? He'll want to talk to his dad. That's how you get a 12 year old to talk. Be his buddy. Can I say it that way? Be her friend. I'll never forget the first time I heard my dear little Elizabeth give me her special name that she gave me. I was carrying her up the stairs. I think she was maybe three years old and I had her in my arms and I was going up the stairs and I got up part of the stairs and she stopped me in the middle of the stairs and she said, Papa. And I said, yes, Elizabeth. And that sweet little girl, she put her hands on my cheeks. You know, that's enough right there. I don't get any Papa. She put her hands on my cheek and she said, you are my sweet daddy friend. I was smitten. It was love from then on out. You are my sweet daddy friend. You know, I thought about that a lot of times. There's a lot of deep meaning in those few words there. Papa, you are sweet. You are my daddy and you are my friend. Yes, you are my sweet daddy friend. You understand what I'm saying? I like the way Michael Pearl says it. He says, hey, relax. Enjoy your children. Come on. Don't get so tough. Don't be so tight. Loosen up. Enjoy your children. Good words, Michael. Good words. Get close. Give them a horsey back ride. Wrestle with the boys on the ground till they get so old, then quit. Have fun with them. Work together with them. Hold hands when you go somewhere. Get some project and do just because they would like to do it and do it with them and let them chatter all the way that they're doing it. Take them to the hardware store. Put them in the car. Take them to the grocery store and let them just chatter away. The closer your relationship with them, the more easily they will receive all the directions that you need to put into their lives. Mark that down. There's power in love, brothers and sisters. There's power from this flow of love. A mutual bond of respect and honor is formed. And this is very important when it comes time to teach, to train, to spank and correct and direct their lives. It's very important that there's a mutual bond of love between you. Let us reason together, brothers and sisters. What motivates you to serve your heavenly father? Are you more motivated to serve God because you're afraid that he might spank you if you don't? Or are you more motivated to serve God when you sense his loving blessing and acceptance upon your life? Which one motivates you more? The spanking God or the blessing God? How many say it's the blessing God? Let me see your hands. How many of you say it's the spanking God? Oh, yeah, that's right. That is exactly the way it works. That's part of the new covenant, isn't it? That's new covenant theology. And by the way, dear parents, that is exactly the same way with our children. They are tremendously motivated to do what is right when there is a relationship, a flow of love and blessing from their father and their mother. That's how it works. They will prosper under the shining face of their parents. You know what a shining face is? A shining face is a smiling face of love and acceptance. That's what it means when the Bible talks about God shining his face on me. It's not just talking about God letting light shine on me. It is God's loving, shining, accepting face upon me that puts fire in me and makes me want to serve him with all my heart. Oh, my dear parents, it's the same way with the children. It's exactly the same. This is the foundation of our service for God. And I tell you, it is the foundation of an obedient, honoring, respecting child. Give them some time, not a spanking. Sometimes that's what they need. Many times when there is a problem with a child, they just need some time, not a spanking. I remember when little Esther was just a little girl, I don't know, maybe three, maybe four years old. We had a problem with willing obedience. I saw the problem. I was concerned about it. My first thoughts were, hmm, maybe we have a strong willed child here on our hands and maybe I need to get more consistent on discipline. And she just needs a few more spankings and everything will be OK. That was my first thought that came into my mind. But I've learned not to go on my first thoughts sometimes. And when I was alone with God in my prayer time, as I was praying for the children and I prayed for that sweet little girl, God just spoke to my heart and said, maybe she just needs a little more of her papa's time and attention. OK, Lord, I received that willingly from the Lord and I set myself to spend more time with her, to take her along with me to the store, to read her a few more books than I usually read her, to go out and play with her with her little dollies. And guess what? In about two or three weeks time, all the obedience problems were just dwindling away. She felt very close to me. Her face lit up when I walked into the house and everything was fine. Didn't even have to get out of the rod and give her a spanking. Amen. That's how it works sometimes. Yes, sometimes they need a spanking. We'll talk about that. We'll get to that. But let's lay this foundation stone first. Sometimes they just need a little time and attention. What about a strong willed child? Maybe you think you have a strong willed child. That's something that people often ask me. Brother Denny, could you give me a little counsel? I have a strong willed child. Could you give me a little counsel? Here's my answer to them. Yeah, I have some counsel for you and your strong willed child. Oh, good. OK. You know, I may just look expectantly. OK, what is he going to say? And I tell him, here's my counsel. T-I-M-E. That's what you need. T-I-M-E. I don't have any more of that. Why don't you just tell me to give him a spanking? I can do that in 15 minutes. I don't have any more. T-I-M-E. Sorry, folks. It's T-I-M-E. You have a strong willed child? Spend some time with him. That may cure all your problems. Time is something that us Americans don't have very much of. Amen? That's ironic to me. We have more time saving devices than any other country in all the world. Amen. And we have more time freedom than any other people in all the world. And we have less time. God have mercy on us. Oh, we just want to spank him, don't we? We think that spanking is the answer to all of our woes. And I'm telling you, it's not. It's not. We Americans, we want everything quick. Quick. McDonald's, quick. 60 seconds. 90 seconds. 90 seconds. In and out. Quick. Right away. I'm afraid that has come over into our child training techniques also. And we want a quick fix for obedience, right? So just get out the rod and let them have it. Straighten them up. Send them on their way sobered and everything will be okay. Sorry, my friend. That is not how you raise children. It will not come out all right. A sweet flow of love and respect is much more powerful than the rod. But it does take more time. It does take more time. Let's look at the new covenant law of blessing. We see in the Old Testament the principle of blessings. It's there. We see it being practiced everywhere in the Old Testament. We looked at a Jewish father and how the Jewish father gave his child a blessing on the Sabbath evening. And that's beautiful. We also can see that God is the one who started this whole matter of blessing in the Garden of Eden. He was the father of Adam and Eve, and he blessed his children. He's the one who started the whole thing. Some time ago, we were down in Washington, D.C., standing to get into this big Washington monument, that big, tall thing sticking up there. And there was a big, long line. I don't know how long, but it was a pretty long line. And a Jewish man cut in line right where I was. I think he might have seen my beard and thought maybe I was a Jew, too. And it was OK for him to cut in line, you know. But anyway, he cut in line, just walked right in there. And there he was. Well, amen. Good. So we started to talk and we talked about many things. And we talked about the Messiah. And in the middle of our conversation, you know, I just asked him, I said, well, let me ask you about your family. How many children do you have? And all of that. And I don't remember how many he had, but he had a bunch. And you know, when I asked him about his family, his face just lit up. He was so excited about his children and to tell me about them. And I thought while he was talking, I'm going to ask him if he gives them a Sabbath blessing on Friday evenings. And I put the question to him. And sure enough, oh, yes, a big smile on his face. Sure, I do that every Friday evening. Those were his words. One day it dawned on me while I was meditating upon this whole principle of blessing that this blessing is just an Old Testament duty. It's a ritual. But in the New Testament, it should be a beautiful way of life because of the power of the Holy Spirit. You know how it is from the old to the new. In the old, you give a tenth. In the new, you give everything. Amen. In the old, you give one son. In the new, you give them all glory. That's because of the power of the Holy Ghost. You give it all. So I thought to myself, OK, it's good to gather your children and put your hands on them on Saturday night or whenever you want to do it and bless them and speak beautiful words about them. But that's kind of Old Testament to me. I think in the New Testament, it should be a whole life full of blessings for them, not just a little blessing on Saturday night. Although I think that's beautiful. If you do that, you keep on doing it. But there's more to it than that. How does this apply to our children? Your children need your blessing all day long. They need it all day long. A ritual is not enough. They need to be surrounded with a life of blessings that they receive from their parents. All the power and effect this has on the children, it cannot be measured. Picture that Jewish father again on the Sabbath Eve. Remember, he looks out at the child. The child comes to get a blessing. The father's face shines out at his son or his daughter as they come to him to get a blessing. He puts his hands upon their head. He speaks words out to them. He blesses them. He speaks words of future blessings. He speaks words of blessings upon their life. He speaks words of affirmation to them. He speaks words of love to them. And that little child walks away from there, wow, feeling good. My father blessed me. Oh, but how much more if a child grows up in an atmosphere of blessing, not just a Saturday night one. This should be happening all the time. What are some practical ways which this can be done? Just consider with me briefly. When you see your children in the morning, first thing in the morning, they ought to see the outshining of your face toward them. When they see you in the morning, when you check up on their schoolwork, they ought to see the outshining of your face and hear words of love and affirmation come out of you. When the child has done a good job with their chores that you gave them to do, as you sit down and have a meal together, what a joy to be able to look over at your child and let the child receive the outshining of love from your face and hear words of blessing come upon them while they're sitting around the meal table. When a child comes to confess something that they did wrong, that maybe it displeased you or maybe they're coming to clear their conscience, I tell you, when my children come to me to make something right, I don't scowl at them one bit. I wrap my arms around them and I hold them close and tight to me. And I bless them that they had the courage to come and tell me that they did wrong. It's a time of blessing. It's not a time of curse. After prayers at bedtime, when the child comes out to the shop while you're working, when the little daughter comes into the kitchen after her little nap, she ought to receive the outshining of love upon her when she sees you. Birthday times are a good time. I like to say it like this. Give them nine pounds of blessings to one pound of correction and everything will be all right. Everything will be all right. Do you see how this could change the atmosphere of your home? This kind of life of blessing is contagious, brothers and sisters. Soon, everybody in the household will be doing it. Children thrive under this kind of care. It is the oil that lubricates all the other aspects of child training. Some time ago, we were having our traditional Sunday evening snack, talk time. That's what we do on Sunday evening, snack and talk time, chatter time. Oh, we talk about all kinds of things. But some years ago, when little David was two, two years old, we were having our little family time. All the children were home back then. And, you know, little David, he was being a two-year-old, not a terrible two. We don't believe in those. He was being a two-year-old. You know how they are, just blessing everybody, being sweet, talking to everybody. And everybody was blessing him and they were holding him on their laps and he was getting blessings from everybody. And I just kind of stepped back out of the scene, you know, and I was watching this and I thought, of course, I just said it in my heart. I said, David, you got it made, boy. You got it made. Here you are, two years old. You are so surrounded with blessings. All your brothers and sisters are blessing you. Your father's blessing you. Your mother's blessing you. Blessing, blessing, blessing, blessing. He'll never have a hard time growing up and wondering whether he has any value or not. Bless God. He was surrounded with blessings. That's the way God wants it to be with every one of our children. He wants our children to be surrounded with blessings. There are so many hurting, rejected people everywhere. Brothers and sisters, the prisons are full of them. The wounds run very deep. And most of the time they can be tracked right back, right back to childhood. They carry those curses into their adulthood lives. They are dysfunctional fathers. They are dysfunctional mothers. They are dysfunctional husbands and wives. They can't fit into society right. Why? Because they grew up with rejection and neglect. And they just figured they must be no good and nobody loves them. That's not right for a Christian child to grow up feeling those words. It's not right. Let's stand and pray. Oh God, our Father, we dwell under your wings tonight, Father. We thank you that you love us. We thank you, Father, that you have been a good example to us of what a loving father is. Lord, oh God, we just pray you will continue to work in our hearts, God, this night. Lord, there's some fathers and mothers' hearts that need to turn tonight, God. I just pray let your sweet Holy Spirit settle down upon our hearts, Lord, and speak to us, God. We trust you for this in Jesus' precious name. Amen.