This morning I was doing some research for a new book and I was reading about David Livingstone’s childhood and teen years. His family lived in a one room home inside a tenement building that housed 24 other families.
What a childhood! David also had to start full time work in a factory when he was only 10yrs old.
I wonder how his mother thought about the life her children had. Maybe she wished they could have an easier and more comfortable life. More money, space and a better home.
But David’s childhood was the perfect training ground for his future. He became a famous explorer and missionary in Africa.
If you’re a parent, maybe you wish you could give your children more comforts and relieve them of any difficulty and suffering. But you don’t know their future. You don’t know what God is preparing them for.
Or maybe you wish you could make life easier for yourself. You don’t know what God is preparing you for.
So although we should do our best to give our children a happy home, we can trust God to give them what they need. And we can be thankful for what we have because we have much more than most in our world.
Be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Hebrews 13:5
