Snow Hill Baptist Church

“Release the Arrow”

By Pastor Dean Honeycutt

Mitchell County

I hope you have a wonderful summer. Hot dogs, swimming pools, and vacation; it’s all good and things we look forward to because we get to take a little time off and spend with the family. I usually write articles about the family because I have a strong burden for godly families. I write from most of my own experiences from the family I grew up in and the family Pam and I have now.

Most people our age have already seen their children move away from home and are in the “empty nest”. But, we have a large family by today’s standards; the average American home is about four people (U.S. Census Bureau 3.14). We have seven. We have already had three high school graduations and two college graduations; and we have two more to go. I will be fifty- six when our youngest graduates from high-school “Lord willing”. The Lord has really blessed us with wonderful children, and your children are wonderful too.

Training and discipling your child is a lot like releasing an arrow. You aim the arrow at the bull’s eye and hope it strikes the center, based on the preparation you made before shooting and the skill you have developed. The Bible says children are a blessing from God and compares them to a man who has a quiver full of arrows.  Psalm 127:3–5 (KJV 1900)

³     Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord:

And the fruit of the womb is his reward.

⁴     As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man;

So are children of the youth.

⁵     Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them:

I like to think of our children as arrows, and we will not release them until they are ready to hit the bull’s eye. The bull’s eye or center mark is a vibrant personal and growing relationship with Jesus Christ. The area around the bull’s eye may represent marriage, college, job, or even success, but those areas are not the bull’s eye and to hit any where else on the target is to miss the main mark which is again a relationship with Jesus. We are not called to be “fans” of Christ but ‘followers”.

The Bible teaches us that we “have all sinned and come short”; we have all missed the mark. God’s only begotten Son died a horrible painful death on a Roman cross. Jesus was our substitute; He took our place and paid for our sin with His sinless life and blood. And God is satisfied, and Jesus’ death is propitiation for our sin against God.

So, our job as parents is to lead our children to Christ, train and discipline them to fear the Lord. This is the bull’s eye, nothing else matters. To fail at a job, get a bad grade on a test, experience a heartbreaking relationship, is minor compared to standing before God one day and giving an account of a life lived for Him.

You are going to release an arrow one day, make sure you release it well. Prepare now for that time. What is important to you will be important to your children. They will be as close to God as you are. (Think about that) The arrow has been in good hands and is ready to hit the mark. When it takes flight, it cannot be retrieved.

God bless you and have a great summer,

Pastor Dean Honeycutt