Naturally I was drawn towards children. Lots of different thoughts passed through my head but the one that stuck was the one that I think God wanted me to see. I was watching the little seven year old girl across from me. She had just picked up one of those magazines for children about the same time her mother had picked up a magazine of her own. As the woman flipped through the pages I saw that the daughter was sneaking peaks at her mother and flipping pages to match. When her mom obviously needed to find something in the back of the magazine I noticed that her daughter mimicked her. It was quite endearing.
Then I thought about the Nanny show I watched last night where the mother and father of two boys had completely stopped trying to raise their kids. The mother at one point blamed the childrens' foul language on tv, school and/or their father. They then showed video of her swearing over and over in the presence of her children and then more video of her children repeating the same words.
This got me to thinking. What are we teaching our kids? A better question would be when do we start teaching our kids? Well, most people would probably say that our children begin learning from us right away. How else do they learn to speak or to walk?
Yet some of the same people would then go on to say that as parents we should not impose our moral beliefs or attitudes on our children nor should we try to force them to share our beliefs. I agree but only in the sense that I don't agree with "imposing" or "forcing". Yet by swinging so far to the left on their thinking they have failed to realise that they are teaching their children these things whether they believe it or not.
Parenting is hard work. Whether you like it or not you have to be an example to your children. If you swear they will swear. If you fight they will fight. If you complain they will complain.
If you say that you are a Christian but then don't act like one your children will not become Christians. DCTalk once said "The Greatest single cause of Atheism today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny him by their lifestyles. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable". Children pick up on hypocrisy very quickly. They know when we are being real with them. I know many people who are not Christians today because they were raised in "Christian" homes but not by those acting like Christians.
But hiding from the responsibility of raising our children is not an option. As I said, we will teach them one way or another. Therefore, we should from day 1 (before that if possible ;)) be teaching our children through our example. If we're praying they will want to pray. If we're reading our Bible they will want to read too. If we surround ourselves with godly people while at the same time trying to reach out to the ungodly they will learn why.
The Apostle Paul said that we should follow him as he follows the Lord. We too need to have people that are examples to us. We look usually towards a pastor or another leader in the church. But don't forget that you too are an example everyday. And the people that will be watching you the most are your children.
Proverbs 22:6 (New King James Version)
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
1 comment:
I love that scripture at the end!! This post was truly inspiring and I sincerly hope and pray that when we start having children, we can bring them up in the right way, with God's help and love.
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