Train Up A Child Day 8

Have you ever considered that you can help your child to learn to have faith?

And He answered them and said,

“O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you?

How long shall I put up with you?

Bring him to Me!” 

They brought the boy to Him.

When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him

into a convulsion, and falling to the ground,

he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. 

And He asked his father,

“How long has this been happening to him?”

And he said, “From childhood. 

It has often thrown him both into the fire

and into the water to destroy him.

But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” 

And Jesus said to him, “‘If You can?’

All things are possible to him who believes.” 

Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said,

“I do believe; help my unbelief.”

Mark 9:19-24

Yes, God has placed upon us the great and mighty privilege and responsibility of teaching our children how to believe, how to trust, how to have faith. We can indeed be used by our God to help their unbelief. We will be used by God to train them up to a habit of faith... if we ourselves surrender to this habit by faith ourselves.

Train Up A Child Day Eight

8.  Train them to a habit of faith.
   
I mean by this, you should train them up to believe what you say.  You should try to make them feel confidence in your judgment, and respect your opinions, as better than their own. You should accustom them to think that, when you say a thing is bad for them, it must be bad, and when you say it is good for them, it must be good; that your knowledge, in short, is better than their own, and that they may rely implicitly on your word. Teach them to feel that what they know not now, they will probably know hereafter, and to be satisfied there is a reason and a needs-be for everything you require them to do.
   
Who indeed can describe the blessedness of a real spirit of faith? Or rather, who can tell the misery that unbelief has brought upon the world?

Unbelief made Eve eat the forbidden fruit, — she doubted the truth of God’s word: "Ye shall surely die."
Unbelief made the old world reject Noah’s warning, and so perish in sin. 
Unbelief kept Israel in the wilderness, — it was the bar that kept them from entering the promised land. 
Unbelief made the Jews crucify the Lord of glory, — they believed not the voice of Moses and the prophets, though read to them every day. 
And unbelief is the reigning sin of man’s heart down to this very hour, — unbelief in God’s promises, — unbelief in God’s threatenings, — unbelief in our own sinfulness, — unbelief in our own danger, — unbelief in everything that runs counter to the pride and worldliness of our evil hearts. 

Reader, you train your children to little purpose if you do not train them to a habit of implicit faith, — faith in their parents’ word, confidence that what their parents say must be right.
   
I have heard it said by some, that you should require nothing of children which they cannot understand that you should explain and give a reason for everything you desire them to do.  I warn you solemnly against such a notion.  I tell you plainly, I think it an unsound and rotten principle. 

No doubt it is absurd to make a mystery of everything you do, and there are many things which it is well to explain to children, in order that they may see that they are reasonable and wise. 

But to bring them up with the idea that they must take nothing on trust, that they, with their weak and imperfect understandings, must have the "why" and the "wherefore" made clear to them at every step they take, — this is indeed a fearful mistake, and likely to have the worst effect on their minds.
   
Reason with your child if you are so disposed, at certain times, but never forget to keep him in mind (if you really love him) that he is but a child after all, — that he thinks as a child, he understands as a child, and therefore must not expect to know the reason of everything at once.
   
Set before him the example of Isaac, in the day when Abraham took him to offer him on Mount Moriah (Gen. 22).  He asked his father that single question, "Where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?" and he got no answer but this, "God will provide Himself a lamb."

How, or where, or whence, or in what manner, or by what means, — all this Isaac was not told; but the answer was enough.  He believed that it would be well, because his father said so, and he was content. 

Tell your children, too, that we must all be learners in our beginnings, that there is an alphabet to be mastered in every kind of knowledge, — that the best horse in the world had need once to be broken, — that a day will come when they will see the wisdom of all your training.  But in the meantime if you say a thing is right, it must be enough for them, — they must believe you, and be content.
   
Parents, if any point in training is important, it is this.  I charge you by the affection you have to your children, use every means to train them up to a habit of faith.

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As a Christian parent I have come to realize that God is on my side. He has a way of backing my words and proving my point without me ever having to do a thing but trust Him. I have lost count of the times He has stepped in with what we like to call in our family a "God-slap". 

A small example is when the girls were little we could tell them to stop running in the house. And if they refused to obey and continued to run when we left the room, it would never fail that they would fall or run into something, then they would come to us crying wanting pity and sympathy, we would look and say "Were you running in the house after we told you not to?"

They would sheepishly nod their "yeses"

And we would remind them that God was watching even when we were not. And they needed to be thankful that their disobedience did not cause more harm than what they had already received.
When we tell them to do something or not to do something we are not trying to be mean or ruin their fun. We just know more than they do and we knew that this would eventually happen if they kept running in the house. 

We have also learned that if we as parents will be faithful in prayer and fellowship with our Savior, the Holy Spirit will let us in on what is going on in our girls hearts and lives, even things they are trying so hard to hide from us. He will give us a heads up. He will let us see things that apart from His eyes we would have never seen. My husband and I both have learned and have often have reminded our girls that we are fully aware of the knowledge that God is on our side and we actually know more about them than what we let them know we know.

Honor your father and your mother,

that your days may be prolonged in the land

which the LORD your God gives you.

Exodus 20:12

This 5th Commandment is our stamp of legality to be able to say in full confidence "because I said so, that's why!" 

I have never felt the need nor the desire to "explain myself" to my children, neither has my husband. My parents never felt the need either. I learned to either take their word, believe it, and walk in it with a happy ending... or I could ignore it and suffer the consequences.

I can in all honesty tell you that I have absolutely no recollection of my parent's ever being wrong. In my minds memory and my heart's confidence I can only recall that they spoke truth to me at all times and every time I went against their truth I suffered greatly.

This is the awesome benefit of godly parents who choose their words wisely and speak honestly. I learned that I could take God at His Word because I had first learned that I could take my parent's at theirs.

My parents spoke truth, they meant what they said, and said what they meant.

Now note my parents were not perfect. I know they look back and wish they had done certain things differently... but what they did do was in truth and in love, not pampering love, but perfecting love.

You shall be careful to perform

what goes out from your lips,

just as you have voluntarily vowed

to the LORD your God,

what you have promised.

Deuteronomy 23:23

This is indeed one of the hardest commands to keep with children where discipline is concerned. The old saying "this hurts me more than it hurts you" is really true, yet you just don't get it until you become a parent.

You set your standard of discipline and then they break your commands, your rules, and you have to flesh out your words. You must administer the exact discipline you said would be the consequence and there is no turning back ever. If you slip the first time, if you cave, you are in trouble.

If you say it, do it.

Teach your children that your Word can be trusted and is to be obeyed.

Calgon Take Me Away

Do not let the calm and reasonable "Train Up A Child" posts fool you... this Christian housewife and momma is on edge.

It is Judgment Seat week and the tired has set in, along with a dull headache due to lack of sleep.

Nice left me about 10:30pm last night when I threw the semi-black duct tape across the basement that is used for our Hell scene because it would not cooperate.

So last night it was after midnight before I got into bed again... and then my stupid dog has me up at 2:30 in the morning. I thought that maybe, just maybe I would leave him in the hall for the night...

Oh yeh did I mention that my husband has been in Connecticut since Tuesday... (ugh... deep sigh....)

Usually when I am in the bedroom the dog lays down at the end of the hall by our door and he stays there. He follows me where ever I go... I think it must be because I am the one who usually feeds him... because he is not always the favorite on my list.

Anyway, at 2:30am he begins whining and snorting in the bulldog kind of way and so I get up and take him outside. So here I am out in the middle of my front yard in my pj's at 2:30 in the morning. The dog does his business and I call him back in and he just looks at me like, "what? you talking to me?" 

I go in the house to find the leash.
Can I find the leash at 2:30 in the morning?
Of course not!

Our dog doesn't have a collar on, because he stays in the house and the collar tears him up for some reason, he will scratch at it until he removes all his hair and makes sores. So no collar. The leash is a rope that is threaded and fits around his head... it's a vet leash.

Well I finally get him to come in the house and call him to his kennel for bed...  
Does he come?
Of course not!
He runs down the hall and parks it in his corner.
I think, well okay, maybe he really did just have to go and relieve himself and he will be quiet the rest of the night.

I finally crawl back in the bed.

Guess who starts whining again just about the time I am at that moment of drifting off into oblivion?
Ugh!
Up again.
This time I am going to put the dog up. I must sleep.

I call him to the kennel again.
Does he come?
Of course not!

So here I am with a death grip around the nape of my dog's neck dragging this 75 lb dog through the house to his kennel...
Oh he's going in!

Finally sleep.

Then morning comes... and I realize that sometime this week I lost every floor in my house and every table and counter top... they are no where to be found. All I can find is dirty dishes and paper and toys and I think there are at least 8 sets of shoes in the living room floor and the garbage can runneth over... all of them!

I hit the floor finding the floor, doing laundry, dishes...oh my I need my coffee!
Quiet time?
Nope didn't happen this morning.

And my morning attitude showed it...

I had to confess to my girls that their mom is on overload... with a short fuse today... tired... with a dull headache... a husband that's still out of town... a dog that is aggravating as all get out... a house that is a wreck... a Mary Kay order to divide with totals to tally... and it's bill day... the fact is I just need grace upon grace today...

And some BC Powders and more coffee probably wouldn't hurt.

Train Up A Child Day 7

So just how important is it to drag your children to church even if it be while they are kicking and screaming- pouting and stomping- grumpy and hateful...

Train Up A Child Day Seven

7.  Train them to habits of diligence, and regularity about public means of grace.
   
Tell them of the duty and privilege of going to the house of God, and joining in the prayers of the congregation.  Tell them that wherever the Lord’s people are gathered together, there the Lord Jesus is present in an especial manner, and that those who absent themselves must expect, like the Apostle Thomas, to miss a blessing.  Tell them of the importance of hearing the Word preached, and that it is God’s ordinance for converting, sanctifying, and building up the souls of men.  Tell them how the Apostle Paul enjoins us not "to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is" (Heb. 10:25); but to exhort one another, to stir one another up to it, and so much the more as we see the day approaching.
  
I call it a sad sight in a church when nobody comes up to the Lord’s table but the elderly people, and the young men and the young women all turn away.  But I call it a sadder sight still when no children are to be seen in a church, excepting those who come to the Sunday School, and are obliged to attend.  Let none of this guilt lie at your doors.  There are many boys and girls in every parish, besides those who come to school, and you who are their parents and friends should see to it that they come with you to church.
   
Do not allow them to grow up with a habit of making vain excuses for not coming.  Give them plainly to understand, that so long as they are under your roof it is the rule of your house for every one in health to honour the Lord’s house upon the Lord’s day, and that you reckon the Sabbath-breaker to be a murderer of his own soul.
   
See to it too, if it can be so arranged, that your children go with you to church, and sit near you when they are there.  To go to church is one thing, but to behave well at church is quite another.  And believe me, there is no security for good behaviour like that of having them under your own eye.
   
The minds of young people are easily drawn aside, and their attention lost, and every possible means should be used to counteract this.  I do not like to see them coming to church by themselves, — they often get into bad company by the way, and so learn more evil on the Lord’s day than in all the rest of the week. 

Neither do I like to see what I call "a young people’s corner" in a church.  They often catch habits of inattention and irreverence there, which it takes years to unlearn, if ever they are unlearned at all.  What I like to see is a whole family sitting together, old and young, side by side, — men, women, and children, serving God according to their households.
   
But there are some who say that it is useless to urge children to attend means of grace, because they cannot understand them.
   
I would not have you listen to such reasoning.  I find no such doctrine in the Old Testament.  When Moses goes before Pharaoh (Ex. 10:9), I observe he says, "We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters: for we must hold a feast unto the Lord."

When Joshua read the law (Josh. 8:35), I observe, "There was not a word which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them." "Thrice in the year," says Ex. 34:23, "shall all your men-children appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel."

And when I turn to the New Testament, I find children mentioned there as partaking in public acts of religion as well as in the Old.  When Paul was leaving the disciples at Tyre for the last time, I find it said (Acts 21:5)," They all brought us on our way, with wives and children, till we were out of the city: and we kneeled down on the shore, and prayed."
   
Samuel, in the days of his childhood, appears to have ministered unto the Lord some time before he really knew Him. "Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him" (1 Sam. 3:7).  The Apostles themselves do not seem to have understood all that our Lord said at the time that it was spoken: "These things understood not His disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of Him" (John 12:16).
   
Parents, comfort your minds with these examples.  Be not cast down because your children see not the full value of the means of grace now.  Only train them up to a habit of regular attendance. Set it before their minds as a high, holy, and solemn duty, and believe me, the day will very likely come when they will bless you for your deed.

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My husband and I have been blessed to have girls who have never fought us on church attendance. They have always loved to go to church and they always look forward to going.

Even my girls who are up there almost every day while I work in various areas, our church is as much home to them as our house. They help clean it, they help move stuff, they know their way around it, they can tell guest where everything is at because they are intimately involved in the service of our church.

Yes my children are the ones that you will see roaming the halls barefoot because their socks and shoes are piled up in the middle of the gym floor somewhere, and they will be laughing and giggling while most likely they are found standing at white board in a room with a dry-erase marker teaching each other Sunday school lessons.

My girls love to be in the house of the Lord and I believe they love it because they know it's home. The people there- they love as they love their aunts and uncles and cousins. They are family because we raised them with them. Our church is not a place we show up to for an hour on Sunday and then leave... Our girls are growing up serving in the church, not just making an appearance.

"I do not like to see them coming to church by themselves" I also have to say that this is one of things that has began to disturb me much here lately. The division of families in the church. We seem to have decided that is okay for our children who still live in our home to attend elsewhere than we do just because "at least they are going somewhere".

My step-daughter moved in with us when she was around 13 years old, her mother and step-father lived in North Carolina. About a year later her mother and step-father moved back to Alabama. My husband and I extended an invite for them to check out our church. They were always welcome in our home as was their family and we wanted them to know that they were just as welcome in our church home. I truly believe that at that point in time, we could have served the Lord with them within the same assembly of believers had they chose to buy a home in our area. Being a family united is just that important to us.    

I also used to teach children's church that occurred during Sunday morning worship and I truly believed the children needed to have this time to learn. However, I have grown to believe that they need this time... just not during Sunday morning worship. It's fun and they love it and it's so much easier as a parent of little ones to enjoy the service without having to hush or control little ones... but all of this is part of training them up... is it not?

"Neither do I like to see what I call "a young people’s corner" in a church." I have to admit that this is the first time that I have really thought about the youth corner...

So as for the youth corner, maybe we would not look over to see so much whispering, so much texting, if every once a while parents said, "No, honey, sorry but you are sitting with me... What your friend comes alone becasue their parents refuse to come? Well bring them to sit with us as well, and hopefully we can be an example to them for the family that they themselves will have one day..."

So parents let us be diligent to teach our children to not forsake the assembly.

Let us first teach by example.

Then let us teach by making it important enough to discipline them over.

"You go because I said go... period"

Train Up A Child Day 6

Yesterday our main point was to teach our children a knowledge of the Scriptures- to introduce them to the Bible-  to help them become intimately acquainted with the Word of God. This must be a priority.

Our next point is also a priority. As we look at the life of Christ in the Scriptures, He was a teacher. One of the most direct questions the disciples ever asked Jesus to teach them was "Lord, teach us to pray..." Luke 11:1

Train Up A Child Day Six

6.  Train them to a habit of prayer.
   
Prayer is the very life-breath of true religion.  It is one of the first evidences that a man is born again.  "Behold," said the Lord of Saul, in the day he sent Ananias to him, "Behold, he prayeth" (Acts 9:11).  He had begun to pray, and that was proof enough.
   
Prayer was the distinguishing mark of the Lord’s people in the day that there began to be a separation between them and the world.  "Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord" (Gen. 4:26).
   
Prayer is the peculiarity of all real Christians now.  They pray, — for they tell God their wants, their feelings, their desires, their fears; and mean what they say.  The nominal Christian may repeat prayers, and good prayers too, but he goes no further.
   
Prayer is the turning-point in a man’s soul.  Our ministry is unprofitable, and our labour is vain, till you are brought to your knees.  Till then, we have no hope about you.
   
Prayer is one great secret of spiritual prosperity.  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.  Show me a growing Christian, a going forward Christian, a strong Christian, a flourishing Christian, and sure am I, he is one that speaks often with his Lord.  He asks much, and he has much.  He tells Jesus everything, and so he always knows how to act.
   
Prayer is the mightiest engine God has placed in our hands.  It is the best weapon to use in every difficulty, and the surest remedy in every trouble.  It is the key that unlocks the treasury of promises, and the hand that draws forth grace and help in time of need.  It is the silver trumpet God commands us to sound in all our necessity, and it is the cry He has promised always to attend to, even as a loving mother to the voice of her child.
   
Prayer is the simplest means that man can use in coming to God. It is within reach of all, — the sick, the aged, the infirm, the paralytic, the blind, the poor, the unlearned, — all can pray.  It avails you nothing to plead want of memory, and want of learning, and want of books, and want of scholarship in this matter.  So long as you have a tongue to tell your soul’s state, you may and ought to pray.  Those words, "Ye have not, because ye ask not" (Jas. 4:2), will be a fearful condemnation to many in the day of judgment.
   
Parents, if you love your children, do all that lies in your power to train them up to a habit of prayer.  Show them how to begin.  Tell them what to say.  Encourage them to persevere.  Remind them if they become careless and slack about it.  Let it not be your fault, at any rate, if they never call on the name of the Lord. 

This, remember, is the first step in religion which a child is able to take.  Long before he can read, you can teach him to kneel by his mother’s side, and repeat the simple words of prayer and praise which she puts in his mouth.  And as the first steps in any undertaking are always the most important, so is the manner in which your children’s prayers are prayed, a point which deserves your closest attention.  Few seem to know how much depends on this.  You must beware lest they get into a way of saying them in a hasty, careless, and irreverent manner.
   
You must beware of giving up the oversight of this matter to servants and nurses, or of trusting too much to your children doing it when left to themselves.  I cannot praise that mother who never looks after this most important part of her child’s daily life herself.  Surely if there be any habit which your own hand and eye should help in forming, it is the habit of prayer.

Believe me, if you never hear your children pray yourself, you are much to blame.  You are little wiser than the bird described in Job, "which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in the dust, and forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them.  She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers: her labour is in vain without fear" (Job 39:14-16).
   
Prayer is, of all habits, the one which we recollect the longest.  Many a grey- headed man could tell you how his mother used to make him pray in the days of his childhood.  Other things have passed away from his mind perhaps.  The church where he was taken to worship, the minister whom he heard preach, the companions who used to play with him, — all these, it may be, have passed from his memory, and left no mark behind.  But you will often find it is far different with his first prayers.  He will often be able to tell you where he knelt, and what he was taught to say, and even how his mother looked all the while.  It will come up as fresh before his mind’s eye as if it was but yesterday.
   
Reader, if you love your children, I charge you, do not let the seed-time of a prayerful habit pass away unimproved.  If you train your children to anything, train them, at least, to a habit of prayer.

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We taught our girls to pray before they could talk. I can remember my little 7 month old Shelby covering her eyes with the back of her hands while her little fingers curled in just slightly as we prayed before our meals and then her little head popping up at "Amen" with this most glorious smile on her face... she was learning to pray. The same came with my Bekah.

Then I remember the day that they were able to to say "Amen". 

Then I remember the day that they "prayed in tongues" and the only word we could really catch was the ending "Amen" but we knew they were praying right along with us.

Then I remember when my little 2 year old Shelby would say the blessing before a meal and she would thank God for each individual item on her plate... except the item she did not want to eat. :-)

We would ask her, Shelby why did you not bless the corn, "I don't like corn" would be her reply...

Then we began the quiet times that were focused for her. And we prayed at meal time, we prayed at bedtime, we prayed at Bible study time... we prayed when we were scared, we prayed when someone hurt us... we prayed with them.

When our Shelby was 3 years old she was sitting on the couch and I was in the rocker giving the infant Bekah a bottle and Shelby out of no where says, "Momma, I need to ask Jesus into my heart." I was shocked and surprised and simply said, "well okay Shelby, you can do that." Then she did. She sat there on that couch in her precious 3 year old body and she prayed for Jesus to come into her heart, all on her own, no prompting or leading from me. When the Holy Spirit convicted her and said pray... she was ready... she knew how to pray. 

Several years ago we realized our girls meal time prayer was becoming a mere repetitional ritual that must be done before they knew we would let them consume food. The "God is great, God is good..." is wonderful to teach our children the habit of praying before a meal and being thankful for our food... but it was now time to push them a little farther.

We had them stop this repetition and begin praying with their own words. Then low and behold it did not take long for their own words to become repetitive and ritual, they had turned their own words into a new "God is great God is good..."

So my husband checked them on it and once again he had to remind them to pray for today. To pray with sincerity. To think of someone today who needs prayer for a specific thing, to think of one thing today that they were thankful for, then also thank God for this food today, and thank Him for being God.

We are also teaching our children to pray God's Word. Now that they are old enough to study it for themselves, it is time they learn to get serious about praying according to God's will and not their own.

A wonderful study that we have used with them to help teach this is Lord, Teach Me To Pray. If this is an area you struggle with yourself, do this study with your child, trust me you will learn as well :-) 

Train Up A Child Day 5

Train Up A Child Day Five

5.  Train your child to a knowledge of the Bible.
   
You cannot make your children love the Bible, I allow.  None but the Holy Ghost can give us a heart to delight in the Word. But you can make your children acquainted with the Bible; and be sure they cannot be acquainted with that blessed book too soon, or too well.
   
A thorough knowledge of the Bible is the foundation of all clear views of religion.  He that is well-grounded in it will not generally be found a waverer, and carried about by every wind of new doctrine.  Any system of training which does not make a knowledge of Scripture the first thing is unsafe and unsound. 

You have need to be careful on this point just now, for the devil is abroad, and error abounds.  Some are to be found amongst us who give the Church the honour due to Jesus Christ.  Some are to be found who make the sacraments saviours and passports to eternal life.  And some are to be found in like manner who honour a catechism more than the Bible, or fill the minds of their children with miserable little story-books, instead of the Scripture of truth. 

But if you love your children, let the simple Bible be everything in the training of their souls; and let all other books go down and take the second place.  Care not so much for their being mighty in the catechism, as for their being mighty in the Scriptures.  This is the training, believe me, that God will honour.  The Psalmist says of Him, " Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy name" (Ps.  138:2); and I think that He gives an especial blessing to all who try to magnify it among men.
   
See that your children read the Bible reverently.  Train them to look on it, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, written by the Holy Ghost Himself, — all true, all profitable, and able to make us wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
   
See that they read it regularly.  Train them to regard it as their soul’s daily food, — as a thing essential to their soul’s daily health.  I know well you can not make this anything more than a form; but there is no telling the amount of sin which a mere form may indirectly restrain.
   
See that they read it all.  You need not shrink from bringing any doctrine before them.  You need not fancy that the leading doctrines of Christianity are things which children cannot understand.  Children understand far more of the Bible than we are apt to suppose.
   
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. In short, I suspect we have no idea how much a little child can take in of the length and breadth of the glorious gospel.  They see far more of these things than we suppose. 
   
Fill their minds with Scripture.  Let the Word dwell in them richly.  Give them the Bible, the whole Bible, even while they are young.

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One of the most irritating things to me is reading the curriculum of modern day Bible Study classes for children. The lack of depth, the way they dance around the truth, the way they treat children as though they have no ability to understand the things of God... when Christ Himself told the grown men of Israel to come to Him as children... it honestly makes me sick.

Then to see the youth materials and even the college... oh my... it's like these writers sit in their smugness of knowledge and tell them they are just too ignorant to understand it all in it's true depth... perhaps our current day of mediocrity has also swept into the church... or more likely the mediocrity began in the church and made it's way as an ideal into our society. 

I am a firm believer that as goes the church goes the nation.

And as goes the home goes the church.

Children understand much more of the Word than we want to give them credit for, and they are usually hungrier for it.

Give them the meat.

They can handle it.

We never wasted our time with storybook bibles... we read to our girls straight from the real deal. We explain the words as we go, if we didn't know it, the girls learned how we looked it up to discover the meaning. We also don't avoid certain chapters because they will have us discussing uncomfortable subject matter. I can think of no better way to discuss or approach uncomfortable stuff than to do it with God's Word.

So how much time in your home is devoted to you as a parent teaching your children the Scriptures? 

How often do you read the Scriptures with them?

When a problem arises do your children see you seek answers and direction from the Word of God?

When your children have a question do you answer them from your own opinion or do you say, "well let's see what God has to say about this?"
It's really just that simple :-)

Our Bekah began having nightmares. She began to fear that someone would come in during the night and hurt her while we all slept. This fear had crept into her mind and she could not get it out. How were we to help her?

We sat down with her and we opened the Bible. We shared Scriptures with her that showed her how God was with her. We looked at several different verses and had her read them to us. Then we prayed with her.

We taught her how to get help from the Word of God, from God Himself...

A few mornings later she came running into our bedroom and joyfully exclaimed, "Momma, God took all those bad dreams away!" She had experienced the mighty hand of deliverance of her God and she knew it was God who had done it and not us and not her own strength or mere mind power or chance. God had once again showed Himself to be God.

As a Bible study teacher I have finally come to realize the truth that Mr Ryle points out in the beginning of this post, I cannot force anyone to fall in love with the Word of God and love studying it the way I do... but that doesn't mean I stop teaching.

That doesn't mean I stop trying.

That doesn't mean that I don't keep asking... have you had your quiet time this morning? 

I can't force love of the Bible, but I can lay a foundation of it's truth, and teach my children to respect it.

Train Up A Child Day 4

Train Up A Child Day Four

4.  Train with this thought continually before your eyes — that the soul of your child is the first thing to be considered.
   
Precious, no doubt, are these little ones in your eyes; but if you love them, think often of their souls.  No interest should weigh with you so much as their eternal interests.  No part of them should be so dear to you as that part which will never die. The world, with all its glory, shall pass away; the hills shall melt; the heavens shall be wrapped together as a scroll; the sun shall cease to shine.  But the spirit which dwells in those little creatures, whom you love so well, shall outlive them all, and whether in happiness or misery (to speak as a man) will depend on you.
   
This is the thought that should be uppermost on your mind in all you do for your children.  In every step you take about them, in every plan, and scheme, and arrangement that concerns them, do not leave out that mighty question, "How will this affect their souls?"
   
Soul love is the soul of all love.  To pet and pamper and indulge your child, as if this world was all he had to look to, and this life the only season for happiness — to do this is not true love, but cruelty.  It is treating him like some beast of the earth, which has but one world to look to, and nothing after death.  It is hiding from him that grand truth, which he ought to be made to learn from his very infancy, — that the chief end of his life is the salvation of his soul.
   
A true Christian must be no slave to fashion, if he would train his child for heaven.  He must not be content to do things merely because they are the custom of the world; to teach them and instruct them in certain ways, merely because it is usual; to allow them to read books of a questionable sort, merely because everybody else reads them; to let them form habits of a doubtful tendency, merely because they are the habits of the day.  He must train with an eye to his children’s souls. 

He must not be ashamed to hear his training called singular and strange.  What if it is? The time is short, — the fashion of this world passeth away.  He that has trained his children for heaven, rather than for earth, — for God, rather than for man, — he is the parent that will be called wise at last.

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I can't tell you the amount of times that I have heard my children say, "I am not allowed to watch that" or "read that" o"listen to that" or "play with that" or "go there". But I am always so proud of them because the times I have overheard it, it was said with firm conviction. I pray that it will always be that way.

Our Shelby is 10 now... so there are beginning to become times when I catch a hint of sarcasm or disappointment when she mutters her restriction... but she mutters it still. Though I would rather it be said because she also fully believes and understands the why... at these muttered times I will accept the unhappy obedience, because at the very least she chose to honor our standards instead of going her own way. 

Once again I pray that this is choice that our girls continues to walk in...

I also can't tell you the times that I had teachers look at me like I was crazy because I came in with a book that was sent home for my child to read and explained to the teacher why it was not an appropriate book for her to be reading and she would take a zero on the project before she placed the lies in the page in her mind.

To one of these occasions the teacher replied, "I've been a teacher for over 20years and the kids have always read and enjoyed this book, it's mere fantasy"

I wanted to say with great sarcasm, "ummm yes and the children who read these kind of books are the ones who are now running our country, making our tv shows and movies, and singing our songs on the radio, and writing new books, including our public school curriculum, and what a wonderful, wholesome, moral, and godly job they are doing."

But I kept my mouth shut and walked away because I felt I had made my stand by returning the book and sometimes you just need to shut up and led God do the point proving. 

Not a one of us want to see our children ridiculed.

Good grief, not a one of us wants to be ridiculed.
But we must be willing to be ridiculed, mocked, even hated if that's what standing for Christ and His truth leads to.

We must also teach our children this confidence by example. 

When they see we are willing to go through the fire to stand for righteousness, to stand on the side of the Lord, then they will see we really believe what we ask of them. 

So many will spend hours with their children training them to be skilled golfers, skilled baseball players, skilled pianist, skilled mathematicians, skilled beauty queens and cheerleaders... focusing them on how to get the most out of this earth. How to have more than they had, always more, bigger, better, more success here on earth, but yet they have taught their children nothing of eternal value.

How much are you investing in the eternal soul of the little ones in your life?

Are you training them to please men?

Or are you training them to please God?