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March 25

"And His question to them had a lesson. "Wist ye not," He said, "that I must be about My Father's business?" Jesus was engaged in the work that He had come into the world to do; but Joseph and Mary had neglected theirs. God had shown them high honour in committing to them His Son. Holy angels had directed the course of Joseph in order to preserve the life of Jesus. But for an entire day they had lost sight of Him whom they should not have forgotten for a moment. And when their anxiety was relieved, they had not censured themselves, but had cast the blame upon Him.”

         Desire of Ages, page 81 from the chapter, 'The Passover visit'

    This paragraph reveals the responsibility that Joseph and Mary bore in being foster parents. They had done a wonderful job in educating the child, He was a fine young man who was well able to hold his own in a lesson with the temple rulers.

      He was 13 now, a teenager in our terms, a man in Hebrew eyes. He should not have even gone out of earshot. True, Jesus had responsibilities as well, but nevertheless something had gone wrong. The adults blamed the child.

      Blame is often the first sign of sin. “She did it!”, said Adam. “Abel is not my responsibility”, said Cain. Joseph and Mary castigated Jesus when they had a responsibility.

      A few years back the Elder and I were walking through town and met two of the little ones from Church. They were wandering around on their own. We re-directed the steps of the two little lambs and encouraged the parents to realise that leaving your six year old to wander the streets was a breach of responsibility.

      There is no difference in caring for a 13 year old. The act of persuasion might be a little harder to negotiate but the responsibility to care is clearly defined.

      We have spoken much about living a planned life. We should lay plans to reach people with the gospel. I have suggested that you create a plan to celebrate a spiritual milestone in life. In the past the idea was promoted that you consider the children of the church as vitally important to the church and that the church should find a plan to care for those children.

      Now is the time for you to plan for your children. Please sit down and start to work on a plan. Prayer is the start. Careful consideration of your 5 or 10 year goal comes next. What do you want for your children in 5 or 10 years?

      What academic success would you have them aim for? What job could you be seeing your child doing? What nascent spiritual gift does your child have? How do you see them using that gift? What kind of person would you have your child marry?

      Take those goals and recognise the things you and your children need to do now to achieve those goals. Realise now that it is you that must be about your Father’s business.