Exhortation and Motivation to Raise Your Children Properly!

6/16/2001

an early morning thought:

Dear Saints, you probably have never viewed it from this perspective, but do you realize all of the heart-ache, lost sleep, trauma, and destruction you will cause to loving brothers and sisters and their children—if you fail to raise your children properly? If your children become monsters, because YOU refused to teach them to respect, obey, care, love, sacrifice, learn, or fear God—do you realize how much harm it causes SO many others? Picture what will happen if they are monsters of self-centered arrogance and defiance of God and man, or simply care nothing for God. Picture how that will affect you and your family, and all of their “friends,” and all of the adults who have sacrificed to try to help you raise and educate them. What a tragedy! Confusion, hurt, tears...forever. Isn’t it worth it, for the Saints, and for the Lamb, To RAISE THEM RIGHT? Carnal sympathy, human logic, laziness, fear....GET OVER IT! The price is TOO HIGH! Learn how to raise them, and HELP EACH OTHER. Don’t be fearful and NOT address things that will spell tragedy later on. Please. (PS—Now I KNOW a few of you have REALLY tough nuts to crack, and your children’s wiring is seriously challenging. Don’t feel bad about this—they can turn out GREAT, even though it is very difficult now. JUST DON’T BE TOO PRIDEFUL OR LAZY OR SOFT to deal with rebellion, and to involve and listen to others. Those SINFUL ATTITUDES are what will kill your child(ren) in the end, NOT their wiring!)

a note from a brother:

Hello gentlemen...Just wanted to add a thought… In the pagan world, 99% of the teens will end up in hell. In the church world, where the youth groups and “services” and such are the means of “building” God’s People, 70-80% (by their OWN estimates!) will end up in hell—because it is NOT God’s Way! In the environment of a Church that is an Image of God’s Son in His Bride, where there is organic Life together and everyone is a Priest and involved deeply with Jesus and Jesus’ Work in the lives around them every day, perhaps 10% of those that grow to be teens will head for hell, in spite of all. We cannot MAKE the parable of the soils not be true...Every one of us, and the young ones, choose God (or not) by the decision of their OWN hearts. SO, we cannot MAKE others love Jesus. We CAN “pull the weeds” and “water” and “fertilize” so that there will be 7 times as many that fall in love with, and obey Jesus...than if we were building wrong.

NOW, let me add this. If YOU are not, in your home, representing Jesus properly to your children—by your life amongst the brothers, your wife and children, your prayer life, your attitudes, your sacrifice and love of others, your reaching out to unBelievers as if you BELIEVE the Word of God—if YOU are not willing to lay down your life to represent Jesus properly in your home, then YOUR CHILDREN WILL BE AMONGST THE 10% THAT LOSE THEIR SOULS TO THE ENEMY. In fact, the 10% is if you do YOUR PART for Jesus. It would be more like 30-50% if you will NOT do your part for Jesus and for the children. Those around you will help some, and bring the percent down a bit. BUT, if you mis-represent Jesus by being foolish or lazy or worldly-sentimental (false love) or distracted...the odds are very high that no one around you will be able to compensate for what you have made excuses about and have neglected to do. If you have debates and negotiations with children (in essence, allowing them authority over you, and misrepresenting God in so doing), sloppy standards, unclear directions, erratic behavior demonstrations by the adults, and so on—you are doing DEEP harm to the trusts that God has put into your hands. AND, this goes for mothers, too, of course.

SO, let’s re-fortify our hearts and minds and priorities, and SPEND THE TIME praying with, reading with, and talking to our children—constantly! Support your wives’ hard work. Husbands, You’re NOT above all that we have been talking about. You are not oh-so-wise that you can waltz into a situation and say some sage things and then disconnect again! DO THE WORK! And LIVE THE LIFE—for that is what the children will REALLY believe.