This week at church we taught our kids about the ascension of Christ, while it provided an important lesson for the children, I felt like it had greater implications for parents. Before ascending to heaven Jesus told his disciples, that the Holy Spirit would come to empower their ministry to the unbelieving world. He told them “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” This is the great commission, it is present to some extent in each gospel account. In Matthew 28:18-20 it says it a little differently, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Christ’s final words to his disciples were a call to love others through the teaching of the gospel, not to make shallow converts but to make disciples. We may never be called to be missionaries in a foreign country, but if you are a parent God has given you a mission field in your very own home. The only ministry that takes higher priority is your personal ministry to your spouse; discipling our children is not a glamorous task, it takes effort, and progress can be very slow, but it is certainly worthwhile. Practically it can be a little overwhelming, especially in our busy lives. While family devotional time is awesome, it is not enough there are little things that you can do that make a great impact on your child.
Help Develop their Worldview
Christianity can’t just be something we do on Sunday, it needs to permeate our lives. Our children are not blind, even though a four year old may not notice inconsistencies in what they are taught, rest assured a sixteen year old will. As parents we must not go on auto pilot when it come to teaching things like creation, this is a foundational issue that the Christian community has been willing to be silent on for fear of sounding uneducated. We must show our children that the bible says what it mean and means what it says. There are gospel implications to creation, the book of Romans in particular emphasizes this point. If the creation account is not historical and is allegory as some say, then how can Christ be a second Adam able to redeem us from the curse of sin? The public school system teaches evolution as a fact, if we do not teach our children otherwise they will believe what “science” teaches and fall away from the faith. If you are not a creation buff and need help Answers in Genesis and Institute for Creation Research have great recourses to help you teach your children about creation.
Times of discipline provided an excellent opportunity to talk with your child about being a created being. After my children disobey I always ask them, “Who made you?” Matthew our middle son often becomes a practical atheist at this point saying, “no one!” Even children realize that being created by someone else, means that they are responsible before their creator to follow his commands. When Matthew finally gives me the right answer, that God created him, I follow up with “Who created mommy?” He will say in the sweetest three year old voice, “God.” Them we talk about Ephesians 6:1, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” I may then ask, “who put mommy in charge?” He will tell me “God.” I usually ask him if he disobeys mommy, who is he really disobeying? Then he can see that disobeying mommy is disobedience to God. This is a very small thing that we do, but it helps build a worldview, one in which my children are created beings made in the image of the living God. This helps them see their position before Him, and their need for a savior.
Another thing that can impact your child’s worldview is making sure that you tell teach them bible stories in a way that emphasizes you are sharing a historical event. Using things like Veggie Tales to teach bible stories can be have an opposite effect on them. David was not a cucumber, and Goliath was not a giant pickle, these images can be powerful in making scripture seem more like a fairy-tale than a historical events. I’m not saying that because I don’t like Veggie Tales, because I do they are clean and have good moral messages. However, they cannot be our primary means for communicating historical bible accounts to our children, they are fine entertainment, but they must be just that entertainment. If you choose to let your children watch Veggie Tales, I encourage you to share the stories from scripture afterwards. There is nothing wrong with paraphrasing a story so that you’re teaching on your child’s level and accommodating their attention span, but work at showing your child where God is in the story. Teach your children how the account works its way into redemptive history, these are not moralistic stories, they are the means by which God is revealing His character and plan for redemption to us.
We are limited by time, there is only so much time in a day and our children are only in our home for so long. We must work to make the most of our time, this means evaluating if we are wasting time on unimportant endeavors. If you find that you cannot find time to disciple your child or children, it is likely that you need to cut out some activities. This may requires sacrifice on our part, we may have to give up an activity we enjoy so that we are more available for our children. It may mean that we limit our children to one or two extra curricular activities; they may not like the limitations we place on them, but we must remember that God has given us a responsibility and he will hold us accountable.
I pray that God will give you a passion for children’s discipleship, as parents we don’t want empty professions of faith, we want to see our children changed by the truth of God’s word. As a parent we have a ripe mission field, it is an honor and a privilege to minister the gospel to our children!
Leading Them to the Cross 