3 commands for parents raising children in the Lord
I. Instruct Your Child in the Lord
Ephesians 6:4b - …bring [your children] up in the… instruction of the Lord.
A. If you’re not teaching them, someone else is
B. Biblical instruction takes many forms
1. Teach them to love truth
Psalm 119:97-104 - O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever mine. I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, because I have observed Your precepts. I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your word. I have not turned aside from Your ordinances, for You Yourself have taught me. How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! From Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.
2. Teach them to love the Lord
Deuteronomy 6:5 - You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
John 14:15 - If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
3. Teach them to live like Christ
1 Corinthians 11:1 - Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.
4. Teach them to glorify God
1 Corinthains 10:31 - Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
5. Teach them how to teach others
Judges 2:10 - All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.
Matthew 28:19a-20a - Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations… teaching them to observe all that I commanded you…
6. Teach them to trust in God rather than themselves
Proverbs 3:5-7 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
C. Take every opportunity to instruct your children
1. Take advantage of unplanned opportunities
2. Plan times to instruct your children
II. Discipline Your Child in the Lord
Ephesians 6:4b - …bring [your children] up in the discipline…of the Lord.
A. Understand discipline biblically
1. God disciplines us
Hebrews 12:5b-11 - My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
2. Discipline is loving
Proverbs 13:24 - He who withholds his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.
3. Discipline redirects a child’s path
Proverbs 22:15 - Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of discipline will remove it far from him.
Proverbs 23:13-14 - Do not hold back discipline from the child, although you strike him with the rod, he will not die. You shall strike him with the rod and rescue his soul from Sheol.
B. Practice discipline biblically
1. Utilize self-control
James 1:20 - …the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.
2. Carry it out for the right purpose
3. Ensure it’s motivated by love
1 Corinthians 16:14 - Let all that you do be done in love.
4. Pair discipline with instruction
5. Maintain consistency
C. Carry out discipline lovingly
1. Parents are the primary disciplinarians
2. Communicate expectations beforehand
3. Help the child see the correlation between cause and effect
4. Pair discipline with reward
III. Practice Balanced Parenting
A. Understand the needs of your children
B. Avoid the pitfall of “overbearing”
C. Avoid the pitfall of “complacent”
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