"Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and do forsake your mother's teaching." Proverbs 1:8
The Purpose
Training our children and our grandchildren to live well in God's world, in God's way, informed by God's Word. (Adapted from lecture notes on Proverbs by Dr. Vern Steiner...altered without permission, but in the knowledge that he is a man of great grace :)
The Plan
God's design, "Plan A," for passing the baton of truth from one generation to the generations which follow is by the faithful sharing of the teaching and training ministry of a set of parents, a mother and a father, who are committed to the truth, are living it out in their lives as an example, and by intentional communication with their children.
Deuteronomy 6 tells us that this "training in truth" takes place in the routine activities of family living. Moses uses expressions like, "talk of them when you sit...when you walk...when you lie down...when your rise up..." In other words, it is the normal routine of living in the context of adults who truly honor and desire to please the Lord that the next two generations receive and personalize the truth of the Living God.
The Problem
The Promise
"The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, and he who begets a wise son will be glad in him. Let your father and your mother be glad, and let her rejoice who gave birth to you." - Proverbs 23:24-25
Stay tuned this week as we prepare for Father's Day by considering together the kind of man a father must be and the basic lessons a father must teach!
Training our children and our grandchildren to live well in God's world, in God's way, informed by God's Word. (Adapted from lecture notes on Proverbs by Dr. Vern Steiner...altered without permission, but in the knowledge that he is a man of great grace :)
The Plan
God's design, "Plan A," for passing the baton of truth from one generation to the generations which follow is by the faithful sharing of the teaching and training ministry of a set of parents, a mother and a father, who are committed to the truth, are living it out in their lives as an example, and by intentional communication with their children.
The Problem
- Parents are sinners who love self by nature and tend to serve self by habit
- Parents are the product of differing home-styles and environments so they bring some pre-conceptions into their own new family
- Parents represent differing strengths and gifts which often create misunderstanding and conflict
- Parents too seldom really sit down and agree on their goals for their family and their strategies for pursuing those targets
- Parents are tempted to believe that they are "naturally" capable of rearing good kids and fail to turn to the Lord for insight and enablement
- Parents are prone to distraction by so many other opportunities and interests in their lives, thus letting the training of their children and grandchildren to live well in God's world, in God's way, informed by God's Word to fall far down their list of priorities and urgencies
"The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, and he who begets a wise son will be glad in him. Let your father and your mother be glad, and let her rejoice who gave birth to you." - Proverbs 23:24-25
Stay tuned this week as we prepare for Father's Day by considering together the kind of man a father must be and the basic lessons a father must teach!
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