RAISING KIDS TO LOVE GOD (PART 1)

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6)

I was thinking about the post from a few weeks ago regarding why children leave the faith later in life and wanted to explore this matter further. One trip to Walmart will reveal that child-rearing is in crisis in our culture and the church at times hardly looks different than the rest of society. Proverbs 22:6 reminds parents of the duties to train up their children. But, what does this mean?

There is no silver bullet. There are no magic words. You can limit what they watch, who they hang out with, what the listen to, but they can still stray from what you taught them concerning matters of faith. I have seen this multiple times, not just with kids who attended public schools, but even with home-schooled and Christian schooled children. It is shocking to me how many kids I have seen grow up in church to become teens and start to slip away and then go off to college completely abandon the faith they were apparently taught to believe. 

A verse like the one above leaves us in some confusion. "I did that and he departed from it anyways." It is important to understand the proverbs address the heart and where it is in relation to God. But we must remember it is God who opens the heart. Our training of the child is just the means through which God works. Truth is, sometimes children do depart contrary to how they were raised. So when we talk about training kids – were talking about training their hearts. Hebrew word means to dedicate, inaugurate or to direct. So the goal for parents is to train or direct their children in the right way so that when they are old they will stay on it.

Training is not an event, it is a process which requires discipline. Discipline is what shapes us grows us in the wisdom of the Lord and learning his holy ways - which takes time. But our modern Christian culture as reduced this to a spiritual event or experience that will get them and keep them on track. I went to youth camp and youth conventions as a teen . Every year I could literally count on certain peers of mine rededicating themselves to Christ for the 10^th time. I could also count on them to forget all about the experience in a matter of weeks. Don't misunderstand me, experiences can be good and life-changing but we should not rely on them nor chase them. They cannot sustain us for the long journey. Something regular, consistent and "normal" is needed. They need the daily bread of the Word of God and prayer. 

Here are some tips parents can use to help train their kids. 

1. Be in the word and prayer yourself. I know this is not always easy, but nothing important is easy or comes naturally. Anything important requires hard work. You cannot recommend what you yourself do not cherish. 

2. Be honest with your kids about your sin and constant need for Gospel power to energize your life. This is so important because many children raised in church are being raised under the crushing weight of the Law. The Gospel of God's grace, which is what trains us to live godly lives (Titus 2:11-12) is often missing mostly because it is missing from the parents' lives. Children are more observant than we realize. They can tell whether or not you really believe the Gospel. 

3. Have daily devotions with your children. They need to be fed from the Word and reminded daily of their need of Jesus. They need to learn to see themselves in the biblical stories of Scripture which are given to us as examples (1 Cor. 10:6, Heb. 12:1) There are many great resources out there that you can use. It doesn't have to take up your entire day or require you to get a seminary education. 

4. Pray for your children without ceasing. At the end of the day, the Lord is the one who does all the saving and transforming of our children. Pray for wisdom for yourself, pray for their eyes to be opened. If you are struggling or failing, be honest with the Lord and ask for him to help you change. 

--Pastor Dave