Page 19 - Potters Vessel - Vol 1, Jan 2018

FINAL 2 - Jan 18_Potters Vessel - First draft 13/01/2018 18:08 Page 19

How terrible the curse and the power of sin! Father- O my God! I humbly confess that I utter these
hood in the likeness of God, the communication to words with shame. How little have the perfect love
another being of a life that was to be immortal and and joy, the purity and brightness of heaven, been
ever blessed, and the establishment of a home of love reflected in the home given to my charge! How little
like that in heaven, was to have been the high I have even understood my calling, or truly aimed
privilege of man, as God created him. But alas! sin at the high ideal ou hast set before me! Father,
came in, and wrought a fearful ruin. forgive us, for Jesus’ sake!

e father makes the child partaker of a sinful na- And hear me, when I beseech ee to guide my
ture; the father feels himself too sinful to be a bless- meditations, and to help me in the study of y
ing to his child; and the home alas! is too often the Holy Word, that I may learn more fully to realize
path not to heaven, but to hell. But, blessed be God! y purpose is with the fatherhood and the
What sin destroyed grace restores. All the purpose motherhood of this earth, and with what interest
and provision of God’s grace point back to the and love ou lookest on each home given up to
restoration of what at creation was intended – the y protection and guidance. Teach me to know
fatherhood and the motherhood of earth, with its ee in y infinite Fatherliness, that the study and
love and its home, its care and its training of the the experience of that Divine Original, after which
children, the reflection and the fellowship of the the parent’s heart was created, may fit me to be a
home and the love of the Father in heaven.

Let every parent who feels conscious of his
own shortcoming, and longs for wisdom
and grace to do aright the work entrusted
him, look back in faith and hope to the
heavenly origin of family life. e God who
created it has redeemed it too, and creates
it anew. He watches over it with tender in-
terest, and meets with His own Father-love
and blessing every parent who desires to
be the minister of His holy purpose.

Would you truly begin by making God’s
thought your thought? Would you
translate the fatherhood and the family on
earth to the image and the likeness of a
heavenly original? Look to God as the
Author of your family. Count on Him
to supply all that is needed to make it what it should true parent to my child. And let a Father’s love and
be. Let His Father-heart and His Father-love be blessing rest on our home. Amen.
your study and your stay. As you entrust your family
into God’s adoring love, you will be assured that He
will fit it as the bright reflection of His desire.
Andrew Murray
(1828 – 1917)
O ou great and holy Creator of men! ou hast
placed me, too, in the wondrous relation of parent
with a child owing its life to me. ou wouldst give
me, too, the happiness of living a life of love, the Di-
vine joy of loving and being loved. ou hast placed
me, too, in a home which is to be the image of the
home in heaven, where the Father and the Son dwell
in everlasting love.

The Potter’s Vessel 19