Much time and hard work is required to properly train children. For
this reason many parents are failing in their duty to help children love
and worship God. For several generations, parents have not trained their
children. Selfish and lazy parents who are not willing to put forth the
effort and make the sacrifices necessary to train children are the primary
reasons for the sad state of affairs children find themselves in today.
Parents want their
children “out of their hair” at all costs. Play and entertainment
have replaced a responsible attitude in the lives of parents. Lazy parents
do not want to face the conflicts that arise when proper training procedures
of children take place. An incorrect definition of grace and love on the
part of parents has also condoned and propagated permissiveness. Reproductive
power is a glorious gift from God (Gen. 1:27-28), but it does not automatically
make good parents and ensure good children. To help children love
and worship God is one of the greatest challenges parents face. With this
in mind and with the limited space to answer the question posed by the
title, I will affirm that the greatest help parents can provide for their
children in loving and worshiping God is to teach them the proper attitude
toward and response to spiritual authority (Col. 3:17). God is the ultimate
in love and authority (1 John 4:8; Psa. 47:2; 83:18; 115:31). Parents must
first therefore, be willing to respond to God's love and commandments in
their own lives before they can be the proper help to their children in
doing the same. There must first be the proper standard to guide the home
(Rom. 13:1; 2 Tim. 3:15; Deu. 6:6-7; Pro.
22:6). Again the parents must live by this standard before they
can expect their children to. Twenty times in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles,
when kings are mentioned it is recorded “and his mother was” or “he walked
in the ways of his father.” Parents must, therefore, train, nurture, and
admonish their children by the infallible standard, the Scriptures (Pro.
1:8; Eph. 6:4; 1 Tim. 1:5). This is a much neglected principle. Does the
child see his parents studying the Bible? Do they know the joy of having
their parents talk with them about what the Bible teaches? Children must
be taught to respect authority. This begins with children learning to obey
their parents (Eph. 6:1). Nothing is much more unbecoming and sinful than
children left to their own way. The child not taught to obey his parents
will be a problem in every facet of society. Parents are to see their children
comply with correct rules and principles. Training has not taken place
unless children are caused to submit to parental authority (1 Sam. 3:13;
Gen. 18:10; Jos. 24:15). Discipline, both preventive and corrective, must
be
practiced if godly parents are to have the respect they deserve.
A part of this discipline is chastisement. The following verses should
be diligently studied and obeyed: 1 Samuel 7:14, Proverbs 13:24,49:48,
22:15, Hebrews 12:6-7. If children are to grow up into responsible. God-fearing
adults, it will be when parents have helped by training their children
to respond correctly to properly constituted and scriptural authority (Psa.
47:2;
83:18; 115:3; Dan. 4:34-35; Rom. 9:20-21). Paul commanded, "Let
every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but
of God: the powers that be are ordained of God" (Rom. 13:1).
Parents must note Exodus 20:11, Deuteronomy 27:16, Proverbs 30:17,
Matthew 15:4, 20:11, Ephe-sians 6:2-3. Why should parents expect their
children to love and submit to the authority of Christ when they were not
trained to love and submit to the authority of their parents?
David P. Brown
Spring, TX