daily bible readings

It’s almost expected in today’s society that teenagers will rebel against their parents and that they will get into trouble. As Christians, we do not have to accept such rubbish. Nor do we have to live by the rules of the world.

The Bible has much to say about parenting and being a child under parental authority. We have to consider who we will believe and rely on for parenting advice and counsel. Do we believe the world that  has a natural and built-in bias against God? Or do we believe God who created the family unit? Ultimately, how you answer this question will determine, to a large degree, how you parent your children and what boundaries you put into place.

Proverbs 22:6 is a key verse that parents should meditate upon. Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. While this verse is not an iron-clad promise that our children will never walk away from the faith, it is a great motivation to parent intentionally.

Parenting teens does not begin with the tween years. It begins on the very day the child is born. Training children in the way they should go (namely, in the way of following God and living out their faith in Jesus Christ) is a lifelong project that starts on day 1 of their life. As the child grows through the various stages, the parents train them up at age appropriate levels.

It is never enough for parents to simply assume that because they are Christian and go to church regularly that the children will follow suit. If you have made this assumption, even subconsciously, then you can almost be 100% certain that your children will walk away from the faith.

Satan wants nothing more than to steal away an entire generation of Christian kids. We have to do everything in our power to train them up in the ways of the Lord. We have to model Christian commitment and Christian living in all our ways, especially at home.

Here are some pointers on training up children in the ways they should go.

· Always be age appropriate in what you expect your children to be doing and knowing. Faith can be expressed at all age levels in different ways. The faith of a 3 year old is different to a 13 year old which is differently to a 30 year old.

· Take every opportunity to teach your children about God and the Bible. As Deuteronomy 6:6–9 says, “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 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. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

· Make family Bible learning time a priority. For example, our family would do devotions around the dinner table every week night. We would read the Bible and pray with the kids individually before bed every night of the week.

· Use life to teach them about the Bible and about God. Show them how to read the Bible. Show them how to look up things in the Bible. Show them how to pray about issues and how to petition God.

· Model faithful obedience in all things 24/7. If they see you flouting the Bible and living in sin, they’ll copy you as they try to  be like you as they are growing up.

· Surround them with other Christian kids and families as much as possible so that they can see that loving Jesus is not quirky to just your family but is normal.

As in everything, there are some things you should try to avoid at all costs.

· Hypocrisy turns children off from following Jesus. They can, and do see quickly through the disguises we try to put on.

· If we relegate our faith to Sonday mornings only, we’ll turn the children off from following Jesus.

· The negative words we use about church, about other Christians and about the Lord will rub off onto our children. They’ll quickly start to imitate us.

· Don’t believe that lie that there is only one parenting style. If this were true, God would have told us how to parent in His Word. Just because someone parents differently to you, doesn’t make them better or worse than you. They are just doing it differently.

Your children are a precious gift from the Lord. You are entrusted with the incredible responsibility of raising them in the love and fear of the Lord. This is a truly joyous and rewarding calling. Don’t take it lightly.

PRAYER

Adoration:

Adore God that He loves us and our families as well.

Confession:

Take time to confess your sins to the Lord and to ask for forgiveness

Thanks:

Thank God for the blessing of your family and your Christian family.

Supplication:

Pray that God would bring the lost children back to Himself as in Luke 15:1-7.

Discussion Questions

1. Some Bibles use the word ‘start’ instead of ‘train’. How does each word change the meaning of the verse?

2. What can we do to help our understanding, when we find that such variables occur in Scripture?

3. If we have children who wander from the Lord, what can we do about it?