Focus on Reproduction, Mentor's Guide, MG12

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F O C U S O N R E P R O D U C T I O N

1 Cor. 4.14-15 - I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. [15] For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 2 Cor. 12.14-15 - Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. [15] I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less? 1 Thess. 2.7-8 - But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. [8] So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. Do you like kids? Are you like the misinformed person who “loved families but couldn’t stand children!” If you desire to be used of God in the body of Christ, you must learn to love and care for little ones in the faith, and ask God to give you a parental heart, spirit, and demeanor. Sacrifice and servanthood are the staples of being a good parent, and if you yield yourself to Christ, such will be the graces the Spirit of God will need to work in your life. The essence of apostolic ministry is to follow the example of Paul, who said to his friends in Thessalonica: 1 Thess. 2.11-12 - For you know how, like a father with his children, [12] we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. May God give us the heart of a caring mother and wisdom of a good father to raise our spiritual children well, all to the glory of God and the building up of his Church. These and other texts reveal a heart of a parent.

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