One of our primary jobs with our children...

“One of our primary jobs with our children is to reflect God’s character in the consistency and unbiased nature of our love, and the consistency and unbiased nature of our discipline. Another primary responsibility is to let them know, from the time they are very young, that the good news of Jesus’ birth and life and death and coming to life again...means that there is hope to be saved from the penalty of their sin—WHEN they give their lives to Him in the future sometime. Someday (we will tell them again and again) they will realize how terrible their sin is and how much they need a Savior. And then, (we tell them again and again), He will come to live inside of them and live His Life through them. This is the good news and the ‘new deal’ that He made with men and children that could not obey God, or their mommy and daddy. So, we tell them they have something very exciting to look forward to. And so, we point them towards the future as we guide and correct and nourish their present.”

_____________

Found this a very timely and encouraging reminder. I thought I would pass it along to some few here.

God bless
mj

The Father has ultimate responsibility for disciplining us as His children, and that also needs to be respected in our family unit. Other people randomly disciplining God’s children is an offense. Likewise, other people randomly disciplining children in a physical family is a violation. The reason why is because God has given the parents the ultimate responsibility. He has given them the ultimate place of understanding so that the carnal things might be purged out. It is very easy for someone who is not right there with the child, who doesn’t know his character to break the bruised reed. For someone who doesn’t know what they are struggling with and what they have already been through, it is easy to snuff out the smoldering wick. Some children are fragile, yet they don’t seem fragile to somebody who doesn’t know them very well. You may know the law, but you may not know the mercy and the grace and how to implement that.

______________

As I read and understand I see that GOD has perfect balance in all things that HE does. I also see that HE wants of us to live and submit to HIS will daily so that we too might know and understand that perfect balance when we deal with others and when we deal with our families. As a parent my responsibility is to raise them in the way that they should go, in the ways of the LORD...however I can not be the instrument to do that if my own life is not in walking daily moment by moment unto the LORD JESUS. Its not just about taking up the rod and punishing for wrongs its about living so deeply in CHRIST that I am constantly in prayerful consideration of HIS will, heart, and desire in each situation so that I will know how HE would have me respond. There are times when the rod is applied when done in love can be a truly good tool to help instruct the child in the ways he should go but there are equally times when the LORD has shown that there are other tools that best suit HIS purpose in the child's life. I believe GOD knows what the perfect balance in training our children is and if we willingly submit ourselves unto HIM without preconceived ideas and answers we will know by HIS leading how to respond in each matter.

God bless
mj

What rings in our ears is that this whole walk and Life of leading our children to Jesus is mostly an Art, in the most creative sense. It is mostly an art and not a science to somehow lead them to reach up and place their hands in Jesus’ hands, to look in His eyes and be melted by His love and His mercy and His Kindness. How do you “bottle that”? How do you write a manual with all the wheres and hows and whens? How do you capture that unfolding of leading a child to see the True Life of God in a set of “ways to raise children”? The answer?? You don’t! : )

We need to have spiritual eyes to See Jesus and feel what He’s feeling for each situation for each child, one-by-one-by-one. It will never be, “Okay, NOW I know how to do this.” That will NEVER be the case. Rather, it will always be for us a day-by-day Life with Him, listening for His voice, staying soft in His hands and humble before His All-knowing, all-encompassing Greatness and Wisdom. If you wanted to put a label on it, you could say that it is all the Truths and principles and wonder of what it means to be Led by His Spirit.

So we can’t answer you, really, about things like “Should it be punitive every time?” or “How do you know when...?” or “What’s the difference for an unbelieving child?” Most of it’s wrapped up in knowing HIM, rather than knowing an “answer.” We would never want to say, “Always discipline for this.” Or “Never discipline in this case.” There are just too many variables to try to peg God down like that. So all of that ONLY drives us to be oh so serious and diligent and purposeful in Living at His feet...rooting out our OWN sin, refining and focusing our own priorities, so we can Hear and See and Sense what He’s wanting.

___________________

This is another wonderful excerpt from a teaching. The importance of "mom and dad" staying and being connected to CHRIST is center in this topic. I believe when we are truly seeking to raise our children to follow JESUS, we ourselves must being doing so! Children learn so much more by watching and imitating then they do by words. I still believe that words have value but only when they are daily lived out!

God bless
mj