A Light In the Dark Storm

Several years ago, on a rainy August day, two young climbers decided to scale the highest summit within Switzerland —Mount Dom. Though they were young and relatively inexperienced, the two men felt confident in their mountain climbing abilities. Too confident, in fact. For despite deteriorating weather, they boldly went forth from the tiny village of Randa at the base of Mount Dom. Their goal—a halfway point called the "High Hut" where they would spend the night before tackling the icy summit the next morning.

The two moved quickly up the forested trail as the rain continued to fall and soon soaked through their inadequate clothing. At 6:00 p.m. the rain suddenly turned to snow. The trail before them became increasingly difficult to follow and they became lost. By 8:00 p.m., night had fallen. It was pitch black, they were soaked, shivering, and heading toward hypothermia. Then, just when their situation was becoming desperate, something miraculous happened.

Out of the darkness, a tiny light began to flicker. Even at a distance, the faint glow shone as bright as a lighthouse beacon to those two shivering, frightened young men. Where did it come from? Before retiring for the night, the Dom’s "High Hut" keeper did what he always did; he placed a kerosene lamp next to the door just in case a beacon might be needed by anyone lost on a dark, stormy night. His simple action saved two lives.

This true story isn’t just a warning for climbers; it should be call to action for every father. Our children start out with great hopes of reaching high places, but they are walking right into the growing darkness of a fallen world.

If left to themselves, even the most confident children will stumble into that world unprepared and destined for disaster. But God’s word lived out in the lives of parents can be the light to bring them into God’s house safely.

Psalm 119:105 “Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.”

Our children need fathers and mothers to show them the light of Christ to guide them and keep them safe and warm, both now and forever.

How are you shining the light for your kids?

Relate Posts: Choose This Day, Be the Man, Three Things that Make Kids Special to Jesus

Choose This Day

Making choices is a part of life, we make choices everyday. Some of the choices that we make are really not that big of a deal, things like: what color socks should I wear today? What should we do for dinner? Or, Do I want to buy Crest or Colgate?

Other choices that we make are of a more important nature: where do I want to go to college? Who should I marry? Or, Is this really the home that we want to buy?

And as parents, we have the responsibility of raising our children in such a way that some day when they are on their own they will be able to make the right choices. So throughout life we give them opportunities to develop decision making skills. We let them pick out their favorite candy bar (which I am sure that all of us can remember was and still is, a very difficult task), we let them choose what they are going to wear to school (within reason) and we allow them other freedoms and other choices as they get older.

We spend many years with our children teaching them about life, about God, about what is right and what is wrong, and someday they will be on their own and will have to make their own choices. And we just hope and pray they make the right decisions.

Joshua I am sure in many ways felt like this about his people, the Israelites. Joshua had been with these people his entire life. He had been leader of Israel for over 20 years. Now the time had come when Joshua would send these people, the people with whom he had worked, dreamed, cried, laughed, fought and worshipped God. It was time for the Israelites to leave the nest (so to speak), to make their own choices, and to decide their own destiny.

In Joshua 23 and 24, Joshua shares with his people some final words of exhortation. Joshua is at the end of a long, full life. His greatest concern before he dies is not himself, but his people and their relationship with the Lord. In chapter 23 he called the leaders of the nation together and told them that he was "about to go the way of all the earth." But first he challenged them to love the Lord and to keep the commandments that God had given them in love. He warned the leaders of the frightening danger that the nation would be in if they led their people in deserting the Lord.

And he called them to make a decision, “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:15).

Will we pass on an example of faithfulness to the next generation?