Principle 6: Train Your Child to Love Prayer

J.C. Ryle is very famously quoted as saying that "Prayer is the very life-breath of true religion."  Is that not so true.  At the very heart of our relationship with God we have the privilege and the access to pray, to talk to the all-holy God of the universe.  Prayer is in fact an evidence of faith.  Pouring your soul out to God in a manor or worship, confession, and thanksgiving is proof of being born again.  What more could we want out of life than our children to be born again?

Prayer is the very life-breath of true religion.

Ryle goes on to say, "When there is much private communion with God, your soul will grow like the grass after rain; when there is little, all will be at a standstill, you will barely keep your soul alive."  Prayer is the means by which we grow in the Christian life.  A growing Christian is one who often talks with the Lord in prayer.  A growing Christian tells Jesus EVERYTHING and ask for spiritual discernment.

What do we teach out children about prayer?

• It is the greatest tool that God has given us to access the riches of His grace.  It is the way in which we can cry out to God and He will hear us.
• It is the simplest way that we can go to God.  Everyone can pray.  

Parents, if we love our children and care about their eternal souls then we will do everything within our power to train them in a habit of prayer.  How you may ask?  

• Pray with them.
• Pray for them.
• Show them how to begin prayer.
• Tell them what to say.
• Train them to persevere in prayer.  

I am not a perfect parent nor am I a perfect Christian who prays all the time.  But I do love prayer and I do long to teach my children to love prayer.  One of the things that has been the most encouraging about prayer with my children is that at the earliest possible moment that they could utter words we started practicing our own family prayer that we say most nights.

Jesus, we love you.  

Thanks for being our Savior and our King!  

Amen!

We must be keenly aware that our children will learn to pray or not to pray from us.  If there is any component of spiritual discipline that we must play a large roll in, it should be that of prayer.  I've never hear a young adult or a seasoned adult, that was recalling their childhood, ever tell me that they wished their parents had taken them to do more fun stuff, or made them travel on more sports team, or made them study harder.  No, I've most often heard these folks recollect how they wished their parents had prayed with them more, read the Bible more, engaged them more in spiritual disciplines.  

The mission is clear for parents, we must train our children to pray.  If we value the soul of our children, then we must train them in the habit of prayer.

Apparent Privilege

May I recommend to you an excellent book on parenting called "Apparent Privilege" by Steve Wright.

From the book:

Parents, you have the greatest privilege of your lives in front of you every day; raising your children.  Pointing your children to Christ, modeling the Gospel, and talking about God's grace shouldn't be a burden.  It is a privilege.  Apparent Privilege provides biblical understanding and the latest research to encourage you in the unparalleled opportunity to be the primary influencer of your children.

 Please pick up the book here.

Sinking Stones and Evening Devotions

Sinking Stones and Evening Devotions

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Never Underestimate Your Importance!

As a parent of a teen or a parent of little ones, it's easy to underestimate your importance and influence in the life of your child. I know I forget this often - especially as my little ones are becoming more and more independent.

I'm reading The Space Between by Walt Mueller. He writes about influencing your kids by just being available to them. I'm a planner and I think that I must always plan time with my kids. Mueller writes:

Recently a friend, and the father of three teenagers, asked me, "Do you now when my kids want to talk to me?" "When?" I asked. "Whenever they want to." He was learning that you don't necessarily schedule time with your kids as you once did. Instead, you make yourself available at even the most inconvenient times. you must always be ready to take advantage of relationship-building moments.

I need to hear that and practice that!

I plan to review The Space Between when I'm finished reading it.

Principle 5: Train Your Child to Know and Love the Bible

We don't love our Bibles enough. And because we, as parents, don't love our Bibles enough our kids don't love the Bible. Walt Mueller (of www.cpyu.org) says to parents, in his work about teenagers called The Space Between, "It is important to be about the business of developing your own inward character in a godly direction" in order to convey godliness to your child. That is convicting. Are you reading your Bible?

What is even more convicting is that my 3 and 1/2 year-old is mimicking everything I do right now. If I'm up at 6am in the morning reading my Bible he wants to be right there with me doing the same thing. I recently had the wild idea that I was going to teach some Scripture to him to see if he could memorize it. I had little hope that he would be able to memorize an "adult" translation of the Bible. Moreover I probably picked one of the hardest verses for a 3 year-old to memorize, 2 Corinthians 5:21, "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." I love this verse because it is the gospel in a nutshell and I thought to myself, "what better verse for him to learn." Again, I had my doubts but in 3 days he had it down pat - no problems - the only word he has trouble with is Corinthians but I'm going to let him slide on that.

All that to say, we are given a huge responsibility to train our children to love the Word of God and if we don't do it early and often, while their minds are these incredible sponges little sponges, we will fail in our duty. We will also fail to follow the directive of Proverbs 22:6.

Granted, we cannot make our children love the Bible, only the Holy Spirit can do that, but we can place the Scriptures before them early and often in as many creative ways as possible. Make it your goal to get your children acquainted with the Bible. One way to do this, no matter what age they are, is to buy them a Bible. If they are older take them shopping to buy one. If they are younger I recommend The Big Picture Story Bible.

Think about it, a decent knowledge of the Bible is the foundation of a solid view of what Christianity (following Jesus) is all about. How many times have you told your children, "if I only knew what you knew when I was your age I would be a better Christian and further along in my walk with the Lord." I know I have said that. What do you inspire your kids to be: athletic, intelligent, beautiful...or godly? Ryle says that "any system of training which does not make a knowledge of Scripture the first thing is unsafe and unsound."

It is a weighty task, but God has given parents the responsibility to us to train our children to read the Bible. We are to train them to look to it for answers. We are to train them to look to it not as the word of man but the Word of God. We are to train them to see it as truth. We are to train them to love it. We are to train them as Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:14-17:

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Parents, see to it that you are reading your Bible regularly and likewise train your children to do so. If they are too young to read, read it to them. Train your children to see the Bible as just as necessary as their daily food. See to that they read all of the Bible and are exposed to the whole counsel of God. Do not shy away from all the doctrines of the Bible - children are able to understand far more than we realize.

I'll close with Ryle's apt instruction to parents in regards to the Bible:

Tell them of sin, its guilt, its consequences, its power, its vileness: you will find they can comprehend something of this. Tell them of the Lord Jesus Christ and His work for our salvation - the atonement, the cross, the blood, the sacrifice, the intercession: you will discover there is something not beyond them in all this. Tell them of the work of the Holy Spirit in man's heart, how He changes, and renews, and sanctifies, and purifies: you will soon see they can go along with you in some measure in this.

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." ~ Psalm 119:105

Making Christ the Focus of Christmas with Your Family

I recently discovered a few books that I want to share with you that I think could be very beneficial in helping you to teach the message of Christmas to your family.

The first is "The Christ of Christmas." These are a collection of sermons from the late James Montgomery Boice. It is an excellent book that presents the Christmas story in many fresh messages. I encourage you to get the book and read one chapter at a time, and then read the scripture that is associated with each chapter to your family and share some devotional thoughts from each chapter. It will bless your soul and your family and help keep Christ at the center of Christmas time.

The second are some children's books on the Christmas story by Carine Mackenzie. I have purchased "Shepherds Find Jesus" and it was excellent. My children were captivated as I read it to them and better yet it proclaimed a wonderful gospel message and not just a cute Christmas story.

There are others by Mackenzie about the Christmas story that you can find by clicking here.

All are on sale now at www.cvbbs.com.

A Little Twist on Proverbs 22:6

"Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." ~Proverbs 22:6

I have recently been doing some reflecting and studying on this verse. I also have been learning Biblical Hebrew which means I'm now armed and dangerous. In my musings and studies I came a cross an article that explored the original meaning of this verse based on the Biblical Hebrew from which we get our English translations.

To make a long explanation short and less boring I will just say that the original Hebrew suggest another way in which this verse can be read/interpreted. It is hard to get the exact since in English as it is in Hebrew but it may read something like this: "Train up a child in his way and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Did you catch the subtlety of that minor change? In other words in our child rearing if we just let a child do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and in "his" way then that is the only way he will know. If we train him up in "his" way than he will be raised and taught to think that the world revolves around him and he can get whatever he wants, whenever he wants.

Often times parenting can just default to this line of thinking and child training. Parenting is hard and often times it just seams like too much work to get a child to obey you and obey the Lord. That's the beautify of this subtle change in the interpretation. It should convict you thoroughly. If you train your child to think that he can live and act however he wants, then when he is all grown up - then that is exactly how will act.

How we raise our children matters now. If we train them now to follow the Lord's way and shepherd the hearts to live obediently now - it matters well into the future. So let's heed this simple advice and this slightly different twist on this well known Proverb. Let's train our children according to God's way, training them to live a life of obedience under God and under the authority of their parents, and not according to their own wants and desires because until the begin to learn otherwise, they are sinful sinners, saved by grace, who need a little guidance ... just like all of us. Right?