How Can I Raise My Children to Love and Follow Christ?

You have a responsibility as a parent. 

Throughout Scripture, God is pretty clear about the responsibility He places in the hands of parents. None is more clear than Deuteronomy 6:6-7: “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

As I’ve written before, we have a responsibility as parents to teach our children what matters to God. It doesn't mean forcing them into a certain set of beliefs or rituals; rather, it means demonstrating a real faith – one that puts the focus on loving God and loving others. In my view, there's not a greater purpose we can have in life than reflecting God's image for our children to see.

Our children are going to learn about the world around them and their role in it. If they don’t learn from us, they will learn from someone else. It’s our responsibility to use our time with our kids wisely.

You have influence as a parent. 

Children are sponges. And, my kids seem to soak up everything – good and bad. They often mimic the mannerisms of my wife and me. They’ll do and say the same things we do from time to time. And I can certainly tell who my daughter has been hanging out with by the phrases she says or the songs she sings.

When writing to the Ephesians, Paul encourages the church to be “imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:1-2). That encourages me and reminds me of how I’m supposed to live and love. But, it also reminds me that my children are in my care and looking for my example. Our children often imitate us. They learn how to act by seeing how we act. They’ll only know how to love by seeing how we love. If they are imitating us, and we are imitating God, our child will grow up knowing what it means to follow Christ.

I’ve often thought about it this way: the moon reflects light from the sun. It’s not a big mirror in the sky reflecting the sun exactly, or else the light from the moon and sun would be the same. When the moon is full, it looks quite bright. But, even at its brightest, it reflects less than 20 percent of the sun’s light. That was the intention… for the moon to be the “lesser light.”

Just as the moon reflects the sun, as a Christian, I should reflect the Son. We were made in God’s image, but we are not perfect like Him. We are works in progress. As we grow closer to Him, there should be some family resemblance between us and our Father. The things I say and do should be characteristic of Him. And, here’s why that’s important. If I truly reflect Him and shine His glory, others will, including my children. “Let your light so shine before men that they will see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

The text above is excerpted from What Does it Mean to Train Up a Child in the Way He Should Go? by Brent Rinehart on Crosswalk.com. 

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