Great Commission Churches

March 2004

Dear Sisters,

My friend Betty Boys writes for us this month. All six of her children are now adults. At least one of their sons is working with Michael and Betty in their Cincinnati church. Betty has been a wonderful example to me of a scriptural woman who "loves her husband and loves her children." She has devoted her life to supporting Mike and caring for her children. I love to hear what she says in perspective of raising six, which includes twins!

Betty now reaps much fruit from making her children's character and love for God her top priorities, working together with her husband. She is now doing the same for her grandchildren. I pray we can all learn as she shares her heart of prayer that has covered her life of service for God.

In His love,
Sandy

Shepherding Your Flock

by Betty Boys, New Life Christian Church, Cincinnati, Ohio

"I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.'" Psalm 122:1

I was sitting on a bench beside Niagara Falls. I was a young mother and wife of a pastor, with all of the questions and trials of taking care of my family and also serving with my husband in Christian work. An older woman sat down beside me and began a conversation. Somehow the topic turned to children. As it turned out, she was a missionary. Her sad recounting of her own family life impacted me for a lifetime.

She and her husband had been busy on the mission field and confident that it was right to send their children off to the care of others, so they could serve the Lord. The end result of this was bitter children who all turned their backs on Jesus. This dear lady wore a very sad face!

I felt the Lord had sent a special opportunity to me to learn from this lady. Proverbs 21:11 says, "When a wise man is instructed, he gets knowledge." My greatest heart's desire was for our children to know, love, and obey Jesus. I wanted them, all six of them, to be glad to have grown up in a Christian home. I still keep the prayer of my heart that I petitioned before the Lord when they were young.

"Dear Lord, please help me to share joy with my children. Give me the grace to laugh with them, even when my duties become heavy. Please help me to answer their questions with gentle, loving respect and to stimulate their creativity to Your praise. Let them see Jesus living in my life. Bless me with a kind, gentle way so they might rejoice because you put them in a Christian home. Amen."

Our home was a busy one...full of laughter, noise, stories, crafts, toys, and generally a mess. It was also full of a broad cross-section of people who came to visit.

There were interesting people who enriched our lives; there were troubled people who were often difficult and demanding; there were kind people who talked to our children; and there were those who looked at them as a terrible bother. Most of these people wanted time and attention from my husband and me. Most of the time, these visitors got our time and attention, and often our food and a bed when needed.

But, there were those times when callers and neighbor kids at the door were told, "No, not now. It's family time." Often this was misunderstood; however, it didn't matter. Family time was for family. Jesus often took only those closest to Him off for private time away from the masses. These were times of unique purpose; so were our family times. These were times of building and strengthening those nearest and dearest to us.

I came to think of our children as my special flock Yes, there was always the larger flock--the church, the neighbors, the extended family, and the needy. But my special flock's need had to come first. Remember, 1 Timothy 5:8 says, "But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." That meant, for us, that training in the Christian life; in polite behavior; in wholesome conversation; in kind treatment of others; of honest, hard work; of cheerful answers and all the other good qualities that my husband and I desired to see in my children were to be taught, and re-taught to them at home by my husband and me--especially me.

But teaching and re-enforcing those qualities was never enough. There were always those areas of the children's lives that seemed impervious to instruction and example. Those deep areas could only be touched and transformed by the working of the Holy Spirit as a response to much intercession for each child.

That job of prayerful intercession is never over. All six children are adults now. I think I pray for them (and their spouses and children) more now than ever before. I pray that God will "restore the years that the swarming locust has eaten" Joel 2:25. I seek Him to repair the foolish mistakes and neglects that we made with all our children. I pray for their health and well being, for their spiritual development, that they will pass a love of Jesus on to their children, and that those children will pass that love of Jesus on to their children. I pray that this process will go on as long as the Lord grants time and into eternity. It's my desire that my special flock will always be glad to go into the house of the Lord.