Raising Children with God Christian Ministries of the Apostolic Faith Church | Erie, Pennsylvania

Every parent is teaching. That is not a choice a mother or father gets to make. The only question is what is being taught, and whether it was chosen on purpose.

Children learn what patience looks like by watching whether we have any. They learn what forgiveness costs by watching whether we pay it. They learn what God is worth by watching how much of our week He gets. Long before a child can recite a verse, that child has already formed an impression of what matters in the house — and it was formed by observation, not instruction.

This is why the Scriptures speak to parents so directly. The task is too weighty to be left to instinct.

They Are Not Ours - Raising Children with God

"Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth" (Ps. 127:3-4).

A heritage is entrusted, not manufactured. The psalmist does not say children are a possession or an accomplishment. He says they are a trust from God, handed to us for a season.

Hannah understood this better than most. She had begged God for a son, and when Samuel was given, she said: "For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him: Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD" (I Sam. 1:27-28).

Lent to the LORD. That is a hard thing for a parent's heart. We would rather hold tightly. But a child held with an open hand is a child who can be led by God into places we would never have chosen for them — and that is the point.

And there is a promise attached to our children that no parent should overlook. When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, he did not stop at the individual: "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of JESUS CHRIST for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children" (Acts 2:38-39).

Unto you — and to your children. Pray that promise over them by name. Raising Children with God

Teach Them Diligently

The clearest instruction God ever gave to parents is also the most practical:

"And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up" (Deut. 6:6-7).

Read the order of that carefully. First, the words are to be in the parent's heart. Then they are taught to the child. God does not ask us to hand our children something we are not carrying ourselves. Children are remarkably good at detecting the difference between a conviction and a rule.

Then notice where the teaching happens. Sitting in the house. Walking by the way. Lying down. Rising up. That is not a Sunday-morning activity. That is the ordinary traffic of a family's day — the kitchen table, the car ride, the last few minutes before the lights go out. God placed the teaching of children right in the middle of normal life, because that is where children actually learn.

You do not need a curriculum to do this. You need to be willing to talk about the Lord out loud, in front of them, in the small hours of the day.

Train, Don't Merely Correct

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Prov. 22:6).

There is a difference between training and correcting. Correction responds to what has already gone wrong. Training builds something before it is needed. A parent who only corrects will spend years exhausted and reactive; a parent who trains is building a foundation the child can stand on when the parent is not in the room.

And correction, when it comes, has a model — God's own dealing with His children:

"For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth... Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby" (Heb. 12:6, 11).

Two things stand out there. Correction from God flows out of love, never out of temper. And it is aimed at fruit — at what the child will become, not merely at ending the behavior in front of us.

The Apostle Paul added a warning that parents need in every generation: "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4). And again: "Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged" (Col. 3:21).

A discouraged child stops trying. Scripture takes that seriously enough to say it twice.

Bring Them to JESUS CHRIST

When parents brought their children to the Lord, the disciples tried to send them away — as if children were an interruption of the real work.

"But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven" (St. Matt. 19:14). And Mark records what happened next: "And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them" (Mk. 10:16).

The Lord had time for them. He was not merely tolerant of children; He blessed them, held them, and said the kingdom belongs to such as these.

So bring them. Bring them to the house of God while they are small. Let them be surrounded by believers who know their names — because a child who is loved by the whole body of Christ, not just by two parents, has many hands holding them steady when the teenage years come. This is part of what God intended when He set ministry in the church "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:12).

The Faith That Passes Down

Paul wrote to a young preacher and reminded him where his faith came from: "When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also" (II Tim. 1:5).

Two women. A grandmother and a mother. No title, no pulpit — and the result was Timothy.

Paul told him elsewhere, "And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (II Tim. 3:15). From a child. Somebody sat with that boy and opened the Word to him long before anyone knew what he would become.

You may never see the whole result of what you are planting. Lois did not live to read Paul's letters to her grandson. Plant anyway.

The psalmist gave the reason plainly: "That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God..." (Ps. 78:6-7).

A Word to Weary Parents

Perhaps you are reading this and counting failures. A temper you lost. Years you were not walking with God yourself. A child who is grown now and far from the Lord.

Hear this: your children's salvation was never resting on your performance. It rests on the mercy of God, who is "not willing that any should perish" (II Pet. 3:9). Your part is to be faithful now — to pray, to live it in front of them, to keep the door open, and to trust God with the outcome.

Joshua did not promise results for the whole nation. He made a decision about his own household: "As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD" (Josh. 24:15).

Make that decision today, whatever yesterday looked like. It is not too late to start being the kind of parent your children will one day thank God for.

If you are in Erie or the surrounding area and want your family surrounded by people who will help you raise your children in the fear of the Lord, we would be glad to receive you.

Christian Ministries of the Apostolic Faith Church "Pursuing Excellence until Excellence is Achieved"