If you want to be successful, bring your children up in the way they should go.
There is an absence of wealth when parents refrain from teaching their children their own moral values because of an underlying belief that says children should find their own path. There is an absence of conscience when parents give way to the pressure of society that is trying to push a normality on us all that is not even right, let alone normal.
Letting children find their own path is not a biblical position and is spiritual abandonment. Human beings are conditioned to whatever they’re most exposed to. If Christian parents abstain from teaching their children biblical values they’re leaving their children a legacy of moral and spiritual bankruptcy. They’re leaving the door open for the world to teach them instead. That’s not why we had children – to let other people’s voices be more prominent than our own.
Nobody is born with the ability to speak – we have to be taught. Nobody is born with the ability to reason – we have to be schooled. Nobody is even born with the ability to balance – we must learn it by practise. It is no different with spiritual wisdom – we must be taught and schooled and learn to balance. It’s the most imperative teaching because it concerns truth, it governs our soul, shapes our heart, establishes our relationship with God which gives us stability, and determines our eternal place.
Anyone with a righteous heart wants to lead by example, because they know it’s good. Children can lead other children by example. Children can even lead their own parents or older family members by example because their hearts are pure. At times, adults can be pulled up by kids who don’t make excuses for bad behaviour.
Being teachable, undefiled by corrupt consciences, and willing to surrender to the unequalled teaching of the bible, is the most beautiful thing we can do for our soul and those of our children.
Proverbs 22:6 (ESV)
Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.
This scripture doesn’t mean we should expect they’ll experience 'teenage rebellion', as if it's a right of passage. Why should we expect they'll walk away if they're being taught what is right every day and learn God's love for them? Rebellion is rebellion, no matter what age you succumb to it. Rebellion is a sin against God. We have to claim our children for Jesus every single day, pray they never turn away, teach them how to respond to life based on biblical wisdom and teach them of God's love. (Love is patient, kind, gentle, does not keep a record of wrong - read 1 Corinthians 13.) Is it easy? No, but take the most positive view possible and believe in your children as you believe in God. Time is running out. That scripture tells me that our children can walk in the completeness of The Way, The Truth and The Life, every day of their lives.
Deuteronomy 6:6-7 (NIV)
These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Our children may not always want to listen, but our teaching is not all about words. It's about our own behaviour being authentic and backing up what we're saying. Not only that, everything has to be underpinned by love. They need to feel loved and forgiven as they're growing, not condemned.
Ephesians 6:4 (AMP)
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger [do not exasperate them to the point of resentment with demands that are trivial or unreasonable or humiliating or abusive; nor by showing favoritism or indifference to any of them], but bring them up [tenderly, with lovingkindness] in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
They will eventually choose for themselves, based on their experience at home.
But ‘as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord’ (Joshua 24:15), means, while our children are in our house, they are taught to serve Him alongside us. It is a parental responsibility before God. Never give them over, willy-nilly, to their own devices (literally these days), or to the enemy camp. It's about boundaries. Lines drawn in the sand.
Jesus prayed for those God gave responsibility to Him for, and He said He didn’t lose one (John 18:9). We ought to follow that example. We won't always get things right, but we teach children how to follow through how we follow. It takes courage, resolve and tenacity. It takes a lot of prayer and faith in God to carry the ultimate responsibility of equipping us and our children. But children are our spiritual responsibility as much as they are our physical responsibility while we bring them up; while they’re in our home.
If your children are older and doubting, or they're not following God or His ways, don't be discouraged. Today is yet another day that God can use. God is well able, and willing. Never stop praying.
Parents, don’t take your hands, your hearts, or your prayers off of your children, because God doesn't.
Isaiah 49:25 (NIV)
I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save.
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