And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates (Deuteronomy 6:6-9).
To have entrusted into your care the life of a precious child is one of earth’s sweetest joys, greatest privileges, and heaviest responsibilities. When you consider you are rearing a life for eternity, it is indeed a sobering thought.
I am frequently asked for advice about how to bring up children. I don’t have all the answers, but I believe there is no greater heritage our children can receive from us than having been taught to read the Word, to pray, and to look to Jesus as the One who knows and understands each problem and has a solution.
The world will make a desperate bid for your children and their minds. You can’t stop this. But while they are in your care and under your control, you can build up an arsenal of Scripture and faith in their minds that the very gates of hell cannot prevail against.
Time doesn’t wait for anyone — especially for your children. Too soon they are grown up and gone from your guidance and direction. That’s why it is so important that they be taught to pray and seek guidance from the Scriptures for their own personal needs.
From the time our children were able to talk, Oral took them on his knee, told them Bible stories, and had them learn to recite Scripture verses. At first they didn’t understand what they were saying, but as they grew older they learned what the verses meant. They learned that the promises of God are for them just as they were for people in the Bible.
One by one as our children reached their eighth birthday, their daddy gave each of them a Bible and told them, “I want you to read a chapter out of your Bible every day of your life.”
We wanted our children to become spiritually independent. Many times when one of them came to me with a problem I would first ask, “Have you talked to the Lord about this?” Then we would pray together.
At a very early age your children will learn from your example to look to Jesus for their guidance and direction. The closer you walk to Him, the closer your children will come to Christ.
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