BRING CHILDREN UP IN THE TRAINING AND INSTRUCTION OF THE LORD
Ephesians 6:1-4, Exodus 20:1-12
“Fathers, don’t frustrate your children with no-win scenarios. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master.” (The Message)
God takes an interest in the welfare of the child and there are many passages in the bible, especially in Proverbs, that lend the wisdom of God to the matter of raising children. What is most interesting, however, is the fifth commandment, because it tells us that well-brought-up children are a vital key in God’s plan to establish his moral values in his people.
Western culture, built on the strong moral codes that the Christian Church taught and imposed, have since been rebelling, on the premise that these teachings were imposed and often strictly applied and with disregard for grace and love towards the individual. Instead the West has been espousing the value of individualism, personal ambition, pushing the limits of behaviour, and the value of breaking free from what constrains you (including notions of right and wrong). No one, and no institution, should impose because such institutions and authority figures are flawed, as exposed by history. Every individual can and should choose their own values, beliefs and paths.
Where the church has sinned, the church should repent, but instead, we too buy into this culture and the values it espouses.
Paul clearly states that parents are to bring their children up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Yet the church often goes with the flow of society in making the family a private matter and generally avoids any effort to be involved with families in the matter of raising and training children to grow in the Lord as it is seen to be the private domain of parents. And we no longer teach moral truths with the force of God, even as we water down salvation to avoid talking about our sin, and we are apologetic about God’s wrath and about heaven and hell.
Families do not spend time around the Word; saying grace is often treated as a joke; praying when you wake, and praying when you sleep is rarely practised; learning to be aware (and respectful) of the presence of God when we worship is something even the adults need; helping the poor and needy and caring about their plight is at best occasional. There is much to be done to raise our children “in the training and instruction of the Lord”.
And so the ills of society are very often in the church and in Christian families as well. If children are not taught to honour those who have raised them, how would they ever learn to honour God, who has rescued them at such personal cost?
I believe the family ministry should be a vital ministry in every church, not to tell parents how to raise their children, because we are all flawed people, but to be a resource and support, as well as a voice to counter the powerful voice of the media, and to help our families hear the voice of God more clearly and inculcate the values of God in their children so that they honour their parents and unlock the promise of “life abundantly; life in thy ways.”
“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”