Genesis 35:1 Then God said to Jacob, “Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.”
With my last child set to graduate high school in a week, today’s scripture has me thinking a lot about the foundations we have laid for our children and the fact that those foundations will only take them so far. At some point, sooner rather than later, they will have to make our foundations their own.
Genesis 35:2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.
What I mean is that when they are in our house, we set the rules. It’s Sunday. Time for church. It’s time to eat. Let’s pray first. But when the youngest goes off to school in the fall, he will get to make those calls, decide whether he believes what we believe, whether he wants to adhere to the systems we adhere to. It’s scary and exhilarating, probably for all of us.
Genesis 35:3 Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.”
Precious Savior, Thank You for the years we have had to grow and nurture these young men in our home. Thank You for trusting us to be the parents they needed. We didn’t always succeed. Sometimes we messed up royally, but we have given them a solid foundation of love in You. Be with them as they find their wings. Keep us all grounded in Your love. Amen.
Genesis 35:4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem.
Have a blessed day.