Few experiences compare in awesomeness to holding your firstborn child. That moment in that hospital room changed my life forever. I was now personally responsible for another’s life. My hands held and comforted him, my boundaries protected him, my breasts nourished him. As he grew and was joined by his brother, the love multiplied. My words and my example became ever more important to me because those two sets of eyes were always watching, always recording, always learning, needing to know that my words and my actions were identical. They needed to understand that life with Christ worked and mattered.

Above all else that I wanted for my boys was the longing that they follow God. David felt the same way about his son. As he prepared to give Solomon his throne, he expressed his longing for him:

As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever. Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be strong, and do it. Then David gave his son Solomon the plans…
1 Chronicles 28:9–11a (NKJ)

Oh, how I long for my children to know God, serve Him with a loyal heart and willing mind, seek Him until they find Him, never forsake Him, and realize they have been chosen for a work He has purposed them to do.

Notice, though, that David didn’t stop his parenting at expressing his longing. He went further and “gave his son Solomon the plans.” In David’s and Solomon’s case, the plans were for building the actual, physical temple. In our case, we don’t stop parenting either. Our children’s bodies and their purpose are their temples, and they must continue to “build” them as they go forward in life. We are still responsible for leading and guiding them as we hear from God.

In the following chapter, David puts his longing for his son into a prayer. He prays, “And give my son Solomon a loyal heart to keep Your commandments and Your testimonies and Your statutes, to do all these things, and to build the temple for which I have made provision.” 1 Chronicles 29:19 (NKJ)

We may have prayed much the same over our children when we first held them in our arms. Now that they are adults, the prayer, the parental guidance, and the trust that God will bring it to pass must remain the same.