Dear Parents and Caregivers

By faith …. By role modelling

We all know the story of Moses, which is summarised in Hebrews 11: 23-28. We read ‘By faith, Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.’

Here we see that Moses’ parents were courageous in obeying God rather than immoral laws that required midwives to murder infant boys. I have sometimes wondered what the conversations were between Moses and his parents during the rare times that Moses might have met with them while growing up. I’m sure they would have said that he was alive today because they disobeyed the king’s ruling.

The message from his parents in those conversations would have been that it is better to obey God when a man’s rulings are in conflict. His parent’s role modelling then speaks into the life of Moses when we read in v24 ‘by faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter’. He chose to be mistreated, he regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger v27.

We see the impact of a parental decision made many years earlier being displayed in the life of a grown child. Moses’ parents did not fear the king’s anger and now we see that Moses himself did not fear the king’s anger when he led the Israelites out.

Our responsibility as parents is to show our children the importance of making tough, righteous decisions. Our children learn from us, they listen to us, they observe us, they imitate us.

As we know, imitations are never a 100% true copy of the original, there is generally a slight imperfection or lessening of the original. If our children imitate us, then it is important by God’s grace that we set a godly example for them to follow.

Preceding many of the verses in Hebrews 11 are the words ‘By faith’. This is what gives us as parents the greatest confidence for ourselves and for our children. Ultimately, it is not us, or about us, but it is the work of God within us; a free gift, that strengthens us to make wise and courageous decisions.

In today’s pluralistic and relativistic society where apparently ‘truth’ does not exist, we and our children will, by virtue of trusting in God’s Word as truth and in Christ who said ‘I am the Truth’, be required to not fear or obey the king’s (Government’s) edicts that are in direct opposition to God’s truth. As parents we need to speak into our children’s lives when we listen to news items, deal with Facebook issues so that they are encouraged by faith to stand for God’s truth. They will learn from us how to respond when they are older.

God bless

Richard Vanderpyl

Principal