Two Lessons from the Book of Samuel

I have been reading about Samuel in the Bible. In case you don't know the story of Samuel, let me give you a little background into his life. You will find the story of Samuel in the book of First Samuel. Starting in chapter one we learn that Samuel's father is Elkanah. Elkanah has two wives, one is Peninnah and Hannah. Now Peninnah had children, but Hannah did not have any children. Hannah cried out to The Lord, and The Lord blessed her with a son, Samuel. Amazingly, on Hannah's part, she promised God that if He would bless her with a child, she would give the child back to God. So that is exactly what Hannah did, after Samuel was weaned, Hannah took Samuel to the temple and gave him to God. So that is where we find Samuel, growing up in the Temple, serving God.

So now two lessons I learned from Samuel:

The first is we ought to listen to God's voice rather than man's. When we have a question, problem, decision shouldn't the first thing we do be pray? Before reading a book, asking someone else, pray, not that God won't use some of these things, but we need to personally be praying and learning to listen to the voice of God. Much like Samuel had to learn, when his first inclination was to go to Eli, he had to learn to just be still and listen to the voice of God.
You see one night when Samuel was sleeping he heard someone call out his name and Samuel ran to Eli, the Priest to see what he wanted. The problem was,Eli did not call Samuel and told Samuel to go back to sleep. Again the same thing happened and again Eli tells Samuel to go back and lie down. The third time that it happened, Eli realized that it must be The Lord calling Samuel (why it took Eli, a Priest, so long to figure out is a story for another time), but now Eli tells Samuel to go back and lie down and when he is called again say, "Speak Lord for your servant hears". So when Samuel heard the voice of The Lord he had to learn to listen. We too need to learn to listen to God. God is still speaking, are we listening?

Second lesson:
Growing up in a church is not a guarantee that one knows or will obey The Lord. As we know Samuel grew up in the temple, now I'm don't just mean that he went to church every week, but he actually grew up there and served in the Temple. Eli also had two sons that also grew up serving in the temple, but growing up in the Temple did not guarantee what kind of men they would grow up to be, each had to decide for himself if he would follow God.
Now when Samuel first heard the call of God, we are told "now Samuel did not know The Lord, nor had the word of The Lord yet been revealed to him". Interesting for someone raised in the church, but being raised in the church is not a guarantee of a relationship with God, that came by being obedient to te call of The Lord. Samuel was obedient to God's calling and we are told that Samuel grew, and The Lord was with him.
However we are told that Eli's sons were evil. So evil that it was told to Eli that his sons would both die in the same day and that God would find another priest who would faithfully serve God in the Temple.
So you see, although raising your children up in the church is a good thing, there will come a time when they will have to choose for themselves to be obedient to the voice of God.