Keys to Raising Faithful Children By Ryan N. Fraser, PhD
We live in a very secular, faithless world!! Secular Humanism! Sexual Promiscuity! Materialism! Selfishness! Feel-Good, Emotion-Driven Religion! Atheism & Agnosticism
Every day our children are bombarded by ungodliness in the mass media as well as in our culture.
Ephesians 6:10-12 (ESV) The Whole Armor of God 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Important Questions:! How are we to raise faithful kids in a faithless world?! How are we to teach our children to be in the world, but not of the world?
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (ESV) 4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house,
and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Psalm 119:9 (ESV) 9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.
Lead Them.
Proverbs 22:6 (ESV) 6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
2 Timothy 1:3-5 (ESV) 3 I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4 As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.
Ephesians 6:4 (ESV) 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Romans 12:1-2 (ESV) A Living Sacrifice 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Listen to Them.
Proverbs 10:19 (ESV) 19 When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.
Proverbs 18:13 (ESV) 13 If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.
James 1:19 (ESV) 19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.
Limit Them.
Proverbs 3:12 (ESV) 12 for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.
Proverbs 13:24 (ESV) 24 Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.
Proverbs 19:18 (ESV) 18 Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death.
Proverbs 22:15 (ESV) 15 Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
Proverbs 23:13-14 (ESV) 13 Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. 14 If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol.
Hebrews 12:11 (ESV) 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Love Them.
1 John 4:16-19 (ESV) 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.
Link Them.
1 Corinthians 12:12-31 (ESV) 12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ...
Psalm 46:10 (ESV) 10 Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
The task of raising faithful kids in a faithless world is indeed a challenge.
It is our responsibility as parents to:! Lead them! Listen to them! Limit them! Love them! Link them! And one more thing... Lift them!