Good parenting:
As parents, it is our responsibility to account for our children. It does not matter how old they get; we will continue to be responsible for them. Children are a blessing from the Lord (Ps 127:3). Parenting nowadays has become more challenging than ever, with all the legislation passed, but when the dust settles, parents are held accountable for their children. So, the question is, what makes a good parent? Out of a list of 10 points for good parenting, I want to pay special attention to 3, and they are: 1. Unconditional love. 2. Patience. 3. Support and Encouragement. With every child, these three have the most impact on their lives. Children with disabilities require a bit more of the three than those without. The parents of the child, who was born blind, mentioned in John chapter 9, had their hands full. They did not have all the assisted services that are offered to children with special needs today. They, without requesting it, got a relief from heaven.
John 9:19-23
19 And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? how then doth he now see?20 His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind:
21 But by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself.22 These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.
23 Therefore said his parents, He is of age; ask him.
Jesus healed the man, the son who was born blind. The thought in those days was that if a person was born with a physical disability, it was because their parents had sinned, but not in this case. This man was born with his disabilities for the glory of God (Jh 9:3). The process for this man’s healing goes back to creation. God made man from the dust of the earth, and he breathed air into him (Gen 2:7). We are told in the book of Ecclesiastes that the dust will return to earth, and the spirit goes back to God (12:7). God created all things with the word he spoke, but man was taken from the dust as a symbol of lowliness. God remembers that we are dust (Ps 103:14). Jesus healed this man by spitting on the ground and making clay with the dust. He anointed the man’s eyes with the clay (Jh 9:6) and sent him to wash in the pool of Siloam. As soon as he washed, he was healed.
These parents were confronted to respond about their child, but held back. They refused to stand by their son. They knew that Jesus healed him, and yet, because of their fears, they left him to defend himself alone.
Psalms 127:3
3 Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
John 9:3
3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
Genesis 2:7
7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Ecclesiastes 12:7
7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
Psalms 103:14
14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
John 9:6
6 When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,