RAISING CHILDREN IN THE WORD: 3 THINGS TO REMEMBER, 5 THINGS TO DO by Carl Laferton for Core Christianity
These are the worst kinds of blogs to write, for two reasons. One, if we love Jesus and we love our kids, then it’s tempting to long for a silver bullet: “Do this, follow these three steps, set your household up this way, and your kids’ salvation is guaranteed”. Two, how do I write this without sounding like I think I’m an expert? I’m not. Our household contains a seven and five-year-old created by God, and two adults doing their flawed, sinful best to introduce them to Him.
If I’m preaching to anyone here, it’s to myself.
So, no silver bullet. And no expert. Still reading?! OK, here are three things I try to remember, and five things we are trying to do, in raising children who have an understanding and appreciation of who our great God is.
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3 Things to Remember
1. It’s God’s job to convert
More than anything, I want my kids to know Jesus. But I can’t change their hearts. Faith is a gift of God, not a birthday present from their dad (Ephesians 2 v 8-9). That keeps me humble and keeps me prayerful (or at least it should). And it’s liberating, actually. Imagine their salvation rested on me. That would be a crushing daily pressure.
2. It’s my job to introduce them to God
Fathers (and, as 2 Timothy 1 v 5 and 3 v 14-15 exemplifies, mothers) are to “bring [children] up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6 v 4). It is not our job to convert, but it is our responsibility to introduce our kids to God. On judgment day God is not going to ask us whether we had a tidy house, or took our kids on foreign holidays, or what school they went to or what grades they achieved or what sport they excelled in… He is going to ask us to answer for the way we showed his Son to our kids in what we said and in what we did. He is going to ask us if we obeyed the Great Commission command to make disciples in our own home.
