I was reading in I Kings chapter 15 today, and saw how it says that King Abijam did according to the sins of his father. Abijam learned his life’s habits from watching his daddy.
Isn’t it true? Our children learn from our actions! We, as parents, must be so careful in the way that we live our lives. Our lives should magnify the Lord and cause our children to want to honor Him. However, the more I counsel teenagers and young adults, the more I realize that children are not being brought up with Biblical principles, but instead are being brought up by human reasoning.
Human reasoning in child rearing only works for a season. Through human reasoning I don’t see how my child can get into trouble if they just go to the mall alone for a while. Our finite minds want us to believe that our children are perfect and would never do anything that would cause dishonor to the Lord and especially their parents. Yet, the Bible says, “a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.” We must learn to replace human reasoning with spiritual reasoning. The Spirit of God must be allowed to govern our very thought and decision making process.
If our parents would learn to live according to the leading of the Spirit; their children would see Christ in their parents. However, if mom and dad are live for God on Sunday, and live for themselves Monday through Saturday – the children will not only grow confused, but they will grow bitter. We as parents must understand that in everything we do; we teach one of two things: we either teach them HOW TO do something, or we teach them HOW NOT TO do something. Granted, not everything we do will be right because we are human, but our children should see a broken and contrite spirit when we have wronged the Lord. They should see us striving to please the Lord in all we SAY and DO!
As children begin developing into little individuals they all learn to have heroes. To most children, their parents are just that to them – you are their hero! They are watching everything we do and trying to mimic our actions. They listen to everything we say and eventually you will hear them say that exact statement with the same tone and expressions. Children are like sponges and they soak up everything they can – that’s how they learn.
I am the father of three beautiful children. I thank God for my children and my greatest desire for them is that they learn to find the joy in Christ that I have found. I have watched and listened as my children sometimes repeat something I have said, or they do something because “daddy did it”. Sometimes it is cute because the thing that they are mimicking is not wrong, but then there have been times when I will hear one sister say to the other, and it is a statement that I made with the same frustration that I made it and I am quickly compelled to go and correct her for what she just said. It grieves me to hear, “but daddy, you said it too.” My heart sinks to think that I have caused my daughter confusion in right versus wrong. She trusts me and thinks that if daddy can do – so can I.
We as parents MUST learn and accept the responsibility that God has blessed us with. We are parents and we are raising these children for God. Let’s never forget – they are still His! He just asked us to raise them for a short time so that they can fulfill their destiny for Christ in His service!
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