The Parable of the talents reapplied

One day God called three families to Him. To one of them He gave ten children. To the next He gave five children. To the third He gave just one child (whether through infertility, miscarriage or early death doesn’t matter. They were only given one child to raise.) He told them to go and raise their children in His culture and education (Ephesians 6)


Later, all three families gathered around His throne. He asked the first family what they did with the children He gave them. They said, “We invested ourselves into our children and made them the top priority in our lives. We sacrificed material wealth so mamma could stay home and homeschool them. We protected them from peer and media influence, though we would have enjoyed more of both ourselves. We made a point of living a righteous life so they would have an example and we followed the Bible’s commands for hubby to love his wife sacrificially and wife to obey and help hubby so they would understand the relationship between God and the church. We carefully researched everything that had to do with their lives, especially their mental and spiritual lives. We taught them not to have a heart of rebellion and the blessings of hard work, and made sure our home was always full of fun and joy. When they became adults, we encouraged them to court instead of casual dating and to stay pure until marriage, guarding their hearts from temptation. After all this hard work, all ten found loving, godly mates, and raised their children the same way. We now give you back our original ten children, their ten mates, and nearly a hundred grandchildren.”

God answered, “Well done though good and faithful servants! It is time for you to enter into your rest. You will be made rulers of a hundred cities.”

He turned to the third couple and asked them the same thing. “God, you only gave us one child. But we took that child and invested ourselves in him. Hubby worked extra hard so wifey could be a volunteer aid at the small private school we sent him too. We were very careful what we allowed him to watch on TV, protecting him from the bad and discussing the marginal and the good. We only exposed him to a very few, well chosen friends who were being raised the same way. When he became an adult we encouraged him to marry his childhood sweetheart and take her to college with him. They became missionaries in the Congo, had five birth children and adopted seven orphans. We present to you our one child, his mate, and their twelve children.”

God answered, “Well done though good and faithful servants! It is time for you to enter into your rest. You will be made rulers of thirty cities (16 for your decedents and another fourteen four those they brought to God that would never have heard the word without your sacrifice of your children and financial support of their work).”

He looked at the second couple; the one with five children. “And what did you do with your children?”

“Well, God. You see, we knew You had written rules to live by, but no one can actually live that way. We sent our children to public school to be witnesses, (even before they were saved). Anyway, we couldn’t afford private school tuition because our house payments were so high. And we couldn’t homeschool because wifey had to work to make the payments on our two new cars. We didn’t discuss what was on TV because they were in their bedrooms and we were in ours. We only let them watch “good” stuff though. They made lots of friends we didn’t really like, but maybe our children were good influences on them. We didn’t let them date until a full year after their peers were dating. One of our boys got his girlfriend pregnant and we talked them into giving the baby up for adoption instead of getting an abortion. That’s good, isn’t it? We made sure they all knew about birth-control and where to get it, but that we didn’t really think it a good idea to have sex before they married. Or at least went to college. They all got married. Well three of them did divorce. Two of them twice. We have seven grandkids in all. We take them to church with us when we can, but four of them are not in our children’s custody, so that is not very often. Two have given their hearts to you and are trying to live right, but it’s difficult since their parents don’t really live right. We don’t know what happened. We raised them in church. Well, most Sundays anyway. I guess the Sunday school teachers and Youth Ministers messed up. So, God, here are the two of our decedents that love you.”

“You evil and idolatrous people! You knew I had laws to live by but you flat ignored them! You lost the ones I gave you to protect! Take away their children and put them under the influence of the first couple and take these people and toss them in hell for disobedience!

“To him who has, will much be given. From him who has not, will that which he does have be taken.”