Parents and Children

Richard Thetford

Everything we parents do influences our children. Whether we like it or not, they will become what we have trained them to be. If we are negative, sarcastic, and bitter, there is a better than even chance that our children will be that way too.

If our lives reflect the love of Jesus, our children will get the message. It will be clear because we'll speak of Him at the supper table, in the car on the way to worship services, on family trips, and anytime the opportunity presents itself. We'll not only speak of Him, we'll also live for Him.

The law of Moses required the Israelites to make the commands of God an integral part of family living. They were told in Deuteronomy 6:7, "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up."

Christianity is not apt to surface in the lives of our children if their only exposure to it is at the church building on Sunday. Furthermore, its not apt to develop if the example set by the parent does not agree with what the parent teaches.

A child needs total exposure to Christian living and Christian teaching in the home because he will most likely become what he sees and hears. There's a lot of truth in the proverb: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).