There was another child born into the family of Adam and Eve, but they didn’t look upon Seth as something that they had gotten from the Lord. They viewed Seth as one who had been appointed to their household. It actually says here, “For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew” (vs. 25). God intends that, in the Christian home, the children in that home should be looked upon as those whom the Lord has specifically appointed to be there. The Lord maintains that they are His, but He has put them into our homes. If we view our children in this way, we will bring them up in a far different way than if we see them simply as that which we have gotten from the Lord.
When Seth was introduced, he had a son called Enos. We read, “He called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the Lord” (vs. 26). Here was the result that God pictured to us as viewing our children as those whom the Lord has appointed to be in our home.
Suppose the Queen came to me and said that out of all the gardens in the world she had picked my garden in which to put six of her plants for me to care for and raise for her. Can you imagine me saying to myself, “Well, as long as they get a drink now and again they’ll be all right. It doesn’t matter if they get enough food or if they are too hot or too cold.” Or can you imagine me saying for one moment, “It doesn’t matter if there is a little bit of poison in their food — it can’t be too bad.” I don’t believe I would think that way.
God has appointed plants in many of our gardens. He has chosen, out of all the gardens in this world, your garden in which to put those plants. And now He holds you responsible as to how those plants are raised. There is a difference in saying, “I have acquired this baby boy or girl from the Lord and he or she is mine to do with as I please,” and in saying, “I see him or her as one that the Lord has put in my garden —appointed there with the responsibility to raise for Him.”
The Lord has faithfully shown us from the Scriptures what He intends that our homes should be, what He intends that the husband should be and do in his home, what He intends that the wife should be and do, what He intends that the children should be and how they are to be viewed in the garden that God intends our homes to be.