to_train_up_a_child.pdf |
Within this verse lies the goal of every Christian father and mother, to train their children in such a way that they will live according to those standards set for them all of their days. Of course, the way that Christian parents train their children is according to the Bible. As soon as we have those precious little ones the training begins. We raise them from birth all the way up until the time that they are ready to start a family of their own. If we have done our job well, they obey the Gospel of Christ and never depart from it. That is our goal as parents and it is a lofty one. It is a goal that literally requires our best.
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God has called His people to be separate from the world. Through His word we learn a different way of life, a different way of looking at things. We are to be a distinct people in the way we act and think. The process that we use to select a husband or wife is no different. In this area too, we are to be different from the world. Unfortunately, more than any other area, the Church is becoming indistinguishable from the world when it comes to the process of selecting a mate. If we continue to follow the same pattern as the world we will suffer the same consequences.
We must have a vision of the sort of men we want our boy's to be. We should want them to be the sort of men we respect when we meet them in our daily life - men of character. There are things that we as parents must do in order to help our boys become such men. It begins with teaching them, and living ourselves, the virtues we admire.
Mankind has made many technological advances over the past century and continues to make new ones every day. Some of these advances have been for the better, others for the worse, and then there are those that have the potential for both good and bad. With all of this knowledge it seems almost scary what man is able to accomplish. Through all of our advances it seems obvious that we are making it easier to sin. Through mediums such as television, movies, and the internet immorality is constantly displayed before our eyes. My main concern is our young people today. They are truly growing up in a world where nothing will be restrained from them.
Husbands should seriously consider the picture they are painting for a watching world. In your relationship with your wife, are you portraying Christ's love and leadership to the Church? If you are not, God expects you to. In fulfilling his role withing the home, a husband is to reflect Christ in His relationship with the Church. This is a high calling! When a husband fails in his role, he fails to represent the Lord's love for the Church. He mars the image of Christ in a way which his wife cannot because he is Christ's authority in the home.
The attitude that sons or daughters have towards their parents has great emphasis placed upon it within the word of God. In fact, when the children of Israel were lead out of the land of Egypt God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses upon Mount Sinai. Four of the commands dealt with man's duty towards God and six of them dealt with man's duty towards each other. The command to honor ones father and mother is the first of the commands that deals with man's duty towards each other. The parent child relationship is foundational to all other human relationships.
God has appointed the man to be the head of the family unit. In order for this role to be filled, good men are needed. In particular, strong fathers are needed to raise strong daughters. The importance of this relationship may often go unnoticed today, but the simple fact of the matter is that daughters need the strength, courage, intelligence, fearlessness, empathy, assertiveness, and self-confidence of their fathers. If we as fathers want to make sure that our little girls grow up to be godly women, we must realize that it starts with us.
Children are to be taught the word of God. This teaching is not to be half-hearted or neglected. Instead, the Bible states that it is to be done diligently. In other words, the teaching is to be done with care and persistence. Who better to fill this role than the father? Children need diligent dads to be the men God intends for them to be.
The Bible emphatically teaches that God ordained marriage. Marriage did not originate with man. It is not something that a group of people just thought up one day and decided would be good for society. Nor is it something that can evolve or change as man desires. Marriage was put in place by God in the beginning.
In 1859, Charles Darwin published his book On the Origin of Species. The book outlined Darwin's theory of evolution in which he claimed one species gave rise to another through the process of natural selection. Darwin stopped just short of explicitly implying his theories to the development of man, but the clear implication was that man too had followed the same process as the rest of nature. In 1871, Darwin published his second book on evolutionary theory titled The Descent of Man. In this book he applied his theories to the development of man stating that man, like the rest of nature, had developed from simple life forms over the process of time. How does this line up with the teachings of the Bible?
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