Home motherhood/family/parenting The Only Thing About Parenting That Matters–Part 2

The Only Thing About Parenting That Matters–Part 2

by Kelly Crawford

 

SO….

What’s wrong? Why are even Christians failing miserably in this area? Why are we losing our children left and right? Why are they growing up to abandon the faith, their spouses and their own children?

We haven’t obeyed the Word of God. That’s all.

Parents are given basically one command concerning their children:

“You shall teach them (the commands of Scripture–namely to love the Lord) diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up…”

Signs, frontlets (reminders between the eyes!),doorposts and gates!

This is not a command for flippant discipleship where success is measured by how well your children can sing the “arky-arky” song! This is heavy.

The family is the place children are to be taught, nourished and grounded in the principles of God’s Word.

The command isn’t given to Sunday schools, to grandparents (although we pray grandparents understand the vision of how integral their role can be), to the day care worker, and especially not to the anti-God, humanistic public school system.

 

It doesn’t matter ONE BIT how many musical instruments my children play, whether or not they’ve had the opportunity to play sports, at what age they learn to read, if they get a scholarship, how many friends they have, or what “wonderful opportunities” we can afford to give them.

None of that matters if I haven’t spent my days laboring to teach my children of the things of God.

(Just listen to what we deem important? “How are you going to send them all to college?” That is coming from Christian men and women who are supposed to be encouraging young couples to raise children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

We need to be hearing them say, “How much time are you spending in God’s Word with each of these little warriors?” Keep that in mind the next time you have the opportunity to encourage another Christian couple.)

Is it enough to just be a Christian and live it out in front of them? According to the Bible, no it isn’t. To TEACH DILIGENTLY is different from having them just absorb it from us.

Until the people of God start to really value children, and see them as an important group of people who will be taking over soon, we will continue to reap the consequences of our apathy.

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7 comments

Mrs. H. May 21, 2008 - 10:21 am

OUCH!!! This is an area where I always seem to slip up. Oh, I get the math, latin, greek, and grammar done every day. I make sure the kids get to the library, baseball practice, and sign them up for lego camp and spinning lessons (knitting). But when we’re pressed for time and the school day is falling short of optimal, it’s always the Bible study time that gets dropped from the list. Come to think of it, when I wake up late and have to start the day running, it’s always my Bible study time that gets shoved aside as well.

Thanks for the reminder (and the toe-stomping, lol). It’s time to get back to what’s important for my little arrows.

Reply
Anonymous May 21, 2008 - 3:09 pm

I don’t mean to sound dumb, but I’m a new mother and my parents did not train us much from home about God’s Word.

How does it look to teach your children about God “all day”? Does it mean we read the Bible all day, or is it in the curriculum, or what?

Just looking for practical help.

Reply
TexasNeals May 21, 2008 - 4:31 pm

thank you, thank you, thank you. i cannot tell you how much God has used your blog to bless me and encourage me. i have only recently found it, but wow! so, again, thank you!

Reply
Kim M. May 21, 2008 - 6:18 pm

Anonymous has a great question.

In regards to your post, my husband and I are really thinking these things through ourselves. And it all boils down to their hearts. What can we do to win them to Christ? To bring them closer to Him. To help them see the big picture.

I just finished reading an article in NGJ magazine (the Pearl’s) and he just talked about the some of these same things in this post. Mr. Pearl is very direct/bold but we need bold preaching!
Go to:
http://www.nogreaterjoy.org
Look on the side for this article:
“God Doesn’t have any grandchildren”.

It is very sobering and brings me to my knees in regards to my own children’s hearts!

Reply
Word Warrior May 21, 2008 - 8:07 pm

Anon,

I’ll probably do a follow up post answering this very question, but I think it starts with looking at the only command given to children-“Honor your father and your mother”, and “obey your parents”.

Because unless a child truly honors his parents, he won’t care much about anything the parent is saying or doing.

The honoring of parents is a rare sight–but that’s where it begins!

More on the practical side in an upcoming post!

Reply
Kristi May 23, 2008 - 2:06 am

What a great post!

Reply

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