The Great Stepper
Old Paths Bible Ministries © 2007 Richard St.James
Preface
I want to make several things very clear.
First: The Bible is the perfect word of God. In the English language, it
is preserved in the Authorized Version of the Bible of 1611 (commonly
called the King James Bible). It is tried! "The word of the Lord is
tried" [Psalm18:30]. It is pure! "The words of the Lord are pure words: as
silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times"
[Psalm 12:6].
Second: The Ideal Biblical Pattern For Marriage Is Set In Genesis
Chapters 1 & 2.
One Man - One Woman For Life ... Both Parents ... One Family ...
Bringing Up The Children Together!
Third: The Step Parent Relationship Is Less Than The Ideal!
Fourth: The Step Parent/Step Child Relationship Is Biblically Based.
The Two Questions!
QUESTION NUMBER 1:
What do Esther, Joash (the king of Judah), and Timothy in the Bible have
in common?
I can come up with at least three things.
1. They believed The Book.
2. They obeyed The Book.
3. They each, in their childhood, grew up in a household where the
presence of one or both of the natural parents was missing [implied with
Timothy].
QUESTION NUMBER 2:
What do Mordecai, Jehoshabeath and Jehoiada the priest, and Joseph, have
in common? I can find at least three things that they have in common.
1. They believed The Book.
2. They obeyed The Book.
3. They each "stepped" into the breech, or hole in a child's life, and
gave of their own selves the necessary nourishment and admonishment to
bring up that child.
And what is a Stepper?
The definition of STEP according to the Webster 1828 dictionary is:
STEP, Sax. steop, from stepan, TO DEPRIVE
Esther became a STEPCHILD to Mordecai because he made a covenant to the
LORD to "FOSTER" her. FOSTER: (according to Webster) means: "a nurse or
food";
1. To feed; to nourish; to support; to bring up.
2. To cherish; to forward; to promote growth.
3. To cherish; to encourage; to sustain and promote ...
Mordecai became a FOSTER-FATHER: "One who takes the place of a father in
feeding and educating a child." Do you see how the Noah Webster 1828
Dictionary shows how tightly inter-related step parent and foster-parent
is? The term STEPCHILD is a child DEPRIVED of its parent. Esther was
DEPRIVED. Definition: STEP-CHILD: A child that is deprived of its
natural parent.
The Stepper Relationships!
Stepfather is: "A father-in-law; a father by marriage only; {the father of an orphan.}"Stepmother is: "A mother by marriage only; a mother-in-law; {the mother of an orphan.}"
Stepdaughter is: "A daughter by marriage; {an orphan daughter.}"
Stepson is: "A son-in-law, {an orphan son.}"
Noah Webster added this note: "In the foregoing explication of step, I have followed Lye. The D. and G. write stief, and the Swedes styf, before the name; a word which does not appear to be connected with any verb signifying to bereave, and the word is not without some difficulties. I have given the explanation, which appears to be most probably correct. If the radical sense of step, a pace, is to part or open, the word coincides with Sax. stepan, to deprive, and in the compounds above, step may imply removal or distance."
If you are a Step Parent, which is not the biblical ideal ... but the very next best,
Then: Make a covenant to the LORD to "FOSTER" your Step Children! For how ever many years you have with them ... be a GREAT STEPPER.