Ambassadors For Christ
Family Pages

RAISING CHILDREN

author unknown

Three basic elements :

1. LOVE THEM
   Make sure they know that you love them. We find a definition of love in 2 Corinthians 12:15,

   And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.

   And in John 3:16, we see that God gave us His Son because He loved us. The Bible defiintion of love is not an emotion.

   Three reasons people do the things they do

   1. To survive - an issue of identification
   2. To belong
   3. To gain status or recognition

   Parents are to provide all those. Let them know that you stand behind them no matter what they do (like God loves you).

   Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

2. LICK THEM. Provide discipline. Show them how to live by choices not by chance.

   Proverbs 22:15 "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him."

   Teach them that they can live independantly in the world because they've learned to live not by impulses but by principles and choices.

   Robert Bork wrote a book "--- Toward the Mark" in which he describes the new generation of barbarians (our children) who need to be civilized by culture (church and the home). Good manners are for living in a good relationship with others, knowing how to act with others.

   II Corinthians 13:7 (Love) Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

   Learning ought to come from the parent. 

3. LEARN THEM Teach them to know the basic issues

   Ephesians 6: 4 "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."

   Deal with them under Grace and not under Law. Provide a proper identity for them. Teach them to make choices. Teach them their identity especially in Christ. Teach them that there is no purpose in life outside of Christ.

   I Corinthians 1:30 "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:"

   Sanctification is being set apart for the purpose for which it was created.  

   Ephesians 2:10 "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." 

   Reproduce yourself in your child. Bring, not send. Parents themselves need to be assured of their own eternal salvation and to be established in the Word of God.

 

Leaders know where they are going. Followers follow. Drifters just drift. 

Get to KNOW your children. Give them a secure life. Teach them to live by choices. Give them a sense of their own real identity that they do make a difference in being who THEY are in Christ.