What did you teach your children this week?

The title of this article may cause many of you to glance over this and think it doesn’t apply. Let me begin by saying that this article was written for parents with children. Your children may be infants, teenagers, or they may even have infants or teens of their own. To all parents, I pose the question, “What have you taught your children this week?” This past week, I taught my daughter, Grace, how to hold her breath in our swimming pool, taught her that the finger that wrote on the wall in Daniel 5 was the finger of God, and I taught her how to shop for a modest bathing suit. Likewise, my parents taught me things as well this week; I learned that taking Exit 78 on I-85 in SC is not necessarily the fastest way to get to cousin Pam’s house, and that in North Carolina, Medicare will only pay for my grandma to stay in the nursing home for 21 days after her recent hip surgery. The point: parents should never stop teaching their children.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 gives a charge to parents when it says,
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 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. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

As I read that passage, I do not find a timeline in it. It doesn’t read, “Teach these things diligently to your children until they become teenagers or until they get married and have kids of their own.” It says that these things shall be on your hearts, and you shall tell them to your children at various times throughout the day. The responsibility of teaching children falls on the parent, not the public school system, not your child’s day care teacher, not even the Children’s Pastor or Student Pastor at your church. (They can be great support and resources to help you in this journey, but it’s not their job) When the Lord gave the people of Israel the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4-9, the end wasn’t children; the end was the future of the nation of Israel. The Lord commanded the people of Israel to teach these things diligently to their children for the sake of passing the Gospel down to another generation.

Our children are growing up in a competing and confronted world. As parents. we had better know what our teachers are teaching our children at school, we had better know what is on their ipods, we had better know what they are watching on TV, etc. In fact, we need to teach them how to listen to music, watch TV, surf the internet and read books. They will learn it somewhere, and for the sake of the Gospel, it needs to be from us as parents. I feel that far too many parents are spending more time teaching their kids how to play baseball and soccer than they are discussing the truths of the Bible with their children. The furtherance of the Gospel depends on you teaching your children.

Let me challenge you this week to teach your children something about the Bible. For parents with younger children, it may be something as simple as teaching your child to memorize Ephesians 6:1: “Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” For parents of teenagers, teach your children how to make wise choices and show them in the Bible how to make wise choices. For parents who have older children, take some time this week to share experiences of raising them and teaching them to make Godly decisions. Those real life examples will encourage and inspire your children who are parents.

A great book for all parents is “Parenting with Scripture” by Kara Durbin. It gives you applicable Bible verses for every situation you may face, from anger to obedience to forgiveness to trust. It has verses for all needs. I challenge you to make the most of every opportunity and use those opportunities to teach your children for the sake of the Gospel, so that it may go well with you, and that the Gospel will live long in the land.

Family Devotions at the Hand House

They say it takes 27 days to make a routine a habit. We are striving to have family worship for 27 straight days. Not that it will become a habit, but that it will be a staple in our family. It is very difficult with holidays, vacations, visiting Grandma and Grandpa and Sundays. But our goal is 27 straight days.

Here is how Family Worship goes at the Hand house. (not that this is the only way) We begin with singing. We usually let our 3 1/2 year old Grace chose a song to sing. Many times she will pick Amazing Grace. (she likes the fact that her name is in it) Then Shanna and I will chose one or two more songs. We always pick a hymn, such as Victory in Jesus or At the Cross. After we sing, Shanna reads a Bible story out of Grace's Children's Bible. It has questions at the end, and a picture. We will ask Grace the questions and point out people and objects on the page. Then I read from Daddy's Bible (ESV) I read the same passage that mommy just read out of the children's Bible. I think it is vital for Grace to know that the stories she hears and the pictures she sees in her Bible are real and from the Bible.

After I read, then we move on to our memory verses. Grace knows the following by heart:

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your stength. And Love your neighbor as yourself."

"Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right."

"Be slow to anger"

"Be kind and compassionate to everyone."

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, He makes me lie down in green pastures."

And my favorite:
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfullness, gentleness and self-control."

She recites 2-3 verses and we work on a new one, or like we are now, adding to Psalms 23.

Next we have prayer time. We go around the room and ask what we are going to pray for. Then we pray as a family. Lots of times Grace prays for things that we cannot understand, but we know God does.

I have recently read Voddie Baucham's book Family Driven Faith. The chapter in there about Family Worship is worth the price of the book. One thing we learned is, as much as possible teach Grace to sit during family worship like she would sit in big church. This is good training for their attention spans as well as practice for big church. Also, we learned that it is ok to discipline during family worship. It sets an example that family worship is not a time to cut up, it is a time of worship.

I know this is hard with little ones, but it is good training for your children and will teach them the importance of families worshipping togather.

Will the Government Undermine the Role and Duties of Parents?

I will let this article speak for itself. I read this on albertmohler.com

When I first read this article I was shocked that the Canadian Government would overstep its bounds and override the rights of a father. Be sure to read the highlighted section at the bottom of this article.

Another Chilling Precedent- A Court Undermines a Parent

A recent court decision in Canada should send chills down every parent's spine. The ruling is so out of bounds that the news story sounds like a parody -- but it isn't. A Canadian judge ruled that a 12-year-old girl was "excessively" punished when her father told her she could not go on a school camping trip because she had broken rules for use of the Internet.
As the Globe and Mail [Toronto] reports:

First, the father banned his 12-year-old daughter from going online after she posted photos of herself on a dating site. Then she allegedly had a row with her stepmother, so the father said his girl couldn't go on a school trip.

The girl took the matter to the court - and won what lawyers say was an unprecedented judgment
.
Madam Justice Suzanne Tessier of the Quebec Superior Court ruled on Friday that the father couldn't discipline his daughter by barring her from the school trip. This judge needs to be grounded and sent to her room. A 12-year-old girl violated rules and disobeyed her father. The rules, by the way, were intended to protect the girl from endangering herself on the Internet. In posting pictures of herself on the Internet -- on a dating site, for crying out loud -- she defied her father and his authority. After going to the court, she got away with it.

For years, we have been warned that the courts were poised to usurp parental authority. We have seen chilling judicial precedents and the encroaching reach of bureaucrats and government agents. Warnings were offered by prophets like Philip Reiff and Christopher Lasch, who saw the family being stripped of its functions and replaced by an army of eager agents. Parents are supplanted by professionals who are "experts" in raising other people's children.

The Canadian case is among the most chilling yet. The father is appealing the decision, even though the girl has already gone on the camping trip. The family is involved in a difficult divorce situation, but the father was granted custody. Gladly, outrage over the judge's ruling is building in Canada.

Lorne Gunter of Canada's National Post described the ruling as "sputteringly enraging." The Canadian blogosphere has taken notice, as have parents.
Gunter drew particular attention to the fact that the girl's attorney explained that she took the case to court because it involved the school trip: "For me that was really important."
Gunter responded: "For me that was really important." So what? Just who are you? Are you the kid's parent? Are you a relative of any sort? No? So why, then, does your opinion matter? And if it does matter, how is court action appropriate? At most, even if you are a close relative, you are limited to calling up the dad and expressing your view that his punishment is over-the-top.

Ms. Fortin insists that while court was a last resort, the situation called for it: "This was not a question of going to the movies or not, or going online or not -- because obviously, I wouldn't have intervened in that." Just how is that obvious? It should have been obvious that you don't go to court over missing the camping trip, either, but that doesn't seem to have dawned on Ms. Fortin. She called the trip a rite of passage. What will be the rite next time, a missed sleepover, her first out-of-town volleyball tournament with the school team?

The logic of this ruling is not limited to Canada. In 1970, Hillary Rodham, then a young lawyer (and later Sen. Hillary Clinton), wrote a law review article, "Children Under the Law," in which she argued that minors should be treated as "child citizens" who should, under at least some conditions, be able to challenge their parents in court over parental decisions.

This father may win his appeal -- we must hope that he does -- but the damage is already done. This 12-year-old girl has defied her father and been rewarded by a secular court. The judge and the court have now become complicit in the girl's disobedience. This father has had his rights as father denied and his authority undermined. We can only imagine the costs of this judicial malpractice in the life of this girl and her family. Beyond this, the precedent is now set for further judicial mischief.

America's parents had better look north and take notice. This judicial atrocity hits very close to home.

Having Children for the Glory of God

The title of this post is reflective of a sermon by John Piper entitled Marriage Is Meant For Making Children- Disciples of Jesus. You can do to the below website and either read the manuscript or listen to this sermon.

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2007/2188_Marriage_Is_Meant_for_Making_ChildrenDisciples_of_Jesus_Part_1/

Listening to this sermon, reading some good books and listening to other preaching on this topic, I felt the need to write a blog about it. Our modern culture gives us a variety of reasons for marriage. These range from sex, company, emotional stability, financial security to many other reasons. Has anyone ever stopped to think that marriage is meant for making children. God designed a man and a woman to cleave togather and become one flesh for the purpose of making children. To further this point, the reason we need to make children is to make disciples of Christ.

We live in a world today where parents have neglected their Bibilical responsibility to teach and raise their children. They rely on Sunday School, AWANA and churches to teach God's word to their children. It's not the churches mandate or responsibility to teach your children about the Bible. It is the churches responsisbility to partner with parents to reach their children. The church and its pastors can be tremendous resource in aiding and supplementing the parental goal.

NAMB has a statistic out that more than half of SBC Christians never share their faith with anyone. You know how we can turn that number around, teach our kids about the Gospel. Take the time to disciple them, and help them become followers of Christ. If parents would do this, that statistic would be blown out of the water. The average American has 1.9 children. (I've never seen half a boy Paw, poor Horatio--- Andy Griffith Show reference). If the average American reaches their 1.9 kids with the Gospel, then the statistic will be covered more than half. On a side note, isn't it sad that the 1.9 kids that we are having is not even enough to replace the current population. If 2 parents have 1.9 kids, they are not even reproducing themselves.

Parents need to heed the words of Deuternomy 6, where is says that "we are to diligently teach these things to our children and our children's children." I urge you, take your responsibilty as parents seriously, let's invest in the lives of our kids for the sake of the Gospel.

Shepherding a Child's Heart

Shepherding a Child's Heart is one of my favorite books of all time. It is written by Pastor Tedd Tripp, who pastors in Hazelton, PA. This past fall Shanna and I led the Shepherding a Child's Heart DVD discipleship class. I have read this book 7 times, and I learn something new everytime I read it.

Below is a book review by Tim Challies on Shepherding a Child's Heart. (Used by permission). Tim does a great job reviewing this book, so I'll let him tell you about it. I think this book is a must read for every Christian Parent who has a desire to raise their children biblically.

There are many things in life that are easy to do poorly but are much more difficult to do with excellence. It did not take me long as a parent to discover that it would not be difficult to raise children, but that it would be exceedingly difficult to do it with excellence. In the six years since my eldest child was born I have looked often for help and advice in becoming an excellent parent. Unfortunately my wife and I have received little mentorship in this area. Thankfully, there are many books written about this topic so we have often looked to these resources to provide the wisdom and training we know we need.

Shepherding A Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp came to us highly recommended. In fact, I can’t think of a book on this topic that was recommended to us more often. It is a book that deals with speaking to the very heart of your children. Realizing that too many parents react only to symptoms of underlying sin, Tripp attempts to help parents look deeper, to see that all the things a child says and does flow from the heart, for as Luke 6:45 says, “…out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” If a parent can understand a child’s heart and shepherd that heart, he can deal most effectively with a child’s deepest needs. And through it all he seeks to keep the gospel central to a parent’s calling and to a child’s response.

The book is divided into two parts. In the first, Tripp lays the foundation for biblical childrearing. He shows that the heart of bad behavior is a sinful heart. He discusses a child’s development, showing that a child is shaped by various influences on his life and that a parent needs to help a child have a Godward orientation. He discusses authority and suggests that, despite our culture’s disgust towards authority, a parent must assert himself as being in a position of God-given authority over a child. A child must realize that parents speak not of their own authority, but of God’s. He also discusses goals, methods, communication and discipline.

Where the first part of the book lays a foundation, the second part guides a parent through shepherding a child through three stages of development: infancy, childhood and teenagers. For each of these periods he suggests the training objectives and then procedures a parent should use to attain these objectives.

A section I found particularly interesting, perhaps because I have young children, was the section dealing with punishment. Tripp advocates spanking as really the only biblical method of punishment (and certainly the only one that is specifically mandated by Scripture) for correcting young children. He lays out very clear circumstances in which children should be spanked and suggests many circumstances in which parents must not spank. He makes this type of corporal punishment very deliberate and very loving. He suggests that parents must be fully in control of themselves when they spank and must not be filled with anger. Parents do not punish their children out of anger, embarrassment or retribution, but to teach children that defying authority will bring about consequences. Children must know that God demands obedience to authority and that there are consequences for defiance.

In his endorsement of this book Edward Welch wrote, “Dr. Tripp’s material on parenting is clearest, most biblically framed, and most helpful that I have ever encountered. It has become the backbone of my own parenting.” I agree entirely. Throughout the book Tripp focuses on Scripture and on the gospel. He focuses on human nature and on the grace of God in providing a solution to the needs of our children. I would not hesitate to recommend this book to any parent, and especially to new parents. Read it now, pray about it, and let God direct you to His ways of shepherding the hearts of your children.

Tim Challies lives just outside of Toronto (Ontario, Canada). He has a degree in history, for the past six years has been working with computers. Several years ago he began a web design company and that is how he currently earn a living. His real passion, though, is theology and the practical application of God's truths to the lives of believers. For the past few years he has been blogging at his web site Challies Dot Com where he post daily reflections, regular book reviews and whatever else seems interesting to him. He an avid reader and try to read at least one hundred books each year. It's an expensive habit. For more reviews of other books check out www.discerningreader.com