Impacting our Children for the Kingdom of God

In his recent post, Reading Biographies of Good Fathers to Become Good Fathers, Justin Taylor highlights a portion of John Piper's biographical message on Rev. Dr. John G. Paton's life as a missionary and the impact of his father as a man of God.

Rev. Dr. John G. Paton was a pastoral missionary to the New Hebrides in the Islands of the South Pacific during the 1800's.  His work was most difficult as he would serve with little noticeable fruit throughout decades of missionary service.  His legacy would reveal the sovereignty of God in the faithfulness of one's commitment to God's call, even amidst difficult circumstances and what appeared to be sparse outcomes.  But Paton understood the great principle of fruitfulness belongs to God as the apostle Paul would set forth, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth." (1 Corinthians 3:6) Paton's legacy and influence upon his homeland of Scotland would serve the Great Commission of Christ, not only raising support for furthering missions around the world, but inspiring hundreds of missionaries to serve on the field. 

Here is a powerful quote from Paton's own Autobiography that Piper shares concerning Paton's father and the impact he had upon his life as a son and missionary.  He was walking with his father to board a train in Kilmarnock, where he would leave as a young man to study at a divinity school and begin his missionary service:

My dear father walked with me the first six miles of the way. His counsels and tears and heavenly conversation on that parting journey are fresh in my heart as if it had been but yesterday; and tears are on my cheeks as freely now as then, whenever memory steals me away to the scene.

For the last half mile or so we walked on together in almost unbroken silence—my father, as was often his custom, carrying hat in hand, while his long flowing yellow hair (then yellow, but in later years white as snow) streamed like a girl’s down his shoulders. His lips kept moving in silent prayers for me; and his tears fell fast when our eyes met each other in looks for which all speech was vain!

We halted on reaching the appointed parting place; he grasped my hand firmly for a minute in silence, and then solemnly and affectionately said: “God bless you, my son! Your father’s God prosper you, and keep you from all evil!”

Unable to say more, his lips kept moving in silent prayer; in tears we embraced, and parted.

I ran off as fast as I could; and, when about to turn a corner in the road where he would lose sight of me, I looked back and saw him still standing with head uncovered where I had left him—gazing after me. Waving my hat in adieu, I rounded the corner and out of sight in instant.

But my heart was too full and sore to carry me further, so I darted into the side of the road and wept for time.

Then, rising up cautiously, I climbed the dike to see if he yet stood where I had left him; and just at that moment I caught a glimpse of him climbing the dike and looking out for me! He did not see me, and after he gazed eagerly in my direction for a while he got down, set his face toward home, and began to return—his head still uncovered, and his heart, I felt sure, still rising in prayers for me.

I watched through blinding tears, till his form faded from my gaze; and then, hastening on my way, vowed deeply and oft, by the help of God, to live and act so as never to grieve or dishonor such a father and mother as he had given me. (Autobiography, pp. 25-26)

Oh that we would faithfully pray for and love our children, with our minds ever in tune with God's great kingdom!