Why You Need to be Sure That Your Children Know the God That You Serve

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6 (NIV) This is a scripture that most Christians know and yet very few really get to the extent that they implement it actively or rather proactively within their own lives concerning their own children. No matter how you became a parent, God blessed you with that child or children for a reason. I know that people in Western society are accustomed to having children for their own selfish reasons and they have no sincere concept as to the important role that they play in the life of that child. Hence fathers who leave marriages because it is no longer the convenient thing for them to be married and not only do they abandon the marriage but they make the horrible mistake of abandoning their role as a father. Mothers decide that rather than raise their children they would rather go out and party and become the "play thing" of some man who could basically care less about them meanwhile Grandma, who is older, tired and stressed is left with the monumental task of raising another generation. Or women who behave in error like, yours truly, who decide to have children without the love and support of a husband for themselves and father for their children. That's right! I love my babies but had I not been so selfish I would've continued to abstain from sex and I would've waited to have my children within a marriage ordained by God but enough about that!

I find it to be quite a curious thing that Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and Roman Catholics take the time to indoctrinate their children from birth as to what the principles of that family's respective faith is and the important role that it will play in the life of that child. Jewish people and even devout Scientologists take the time to indoctrinate their children as to what they are to believe about God as the foundation for the rest of their lives. Now the fact that Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roman Catholics and Scientologists believe in religious principles that are not congruent to biblically sound principles is something else but the fact is, they get something that the average so-called charismatic, pentecostal, believer doesn't get and that's the importance of teaching your children about the God that you serve!

I remember when my daughter was two, the Lord revealed to me the importance of reading the Bible to her and praying with her and I wanted to but something in me wanted to justify not doing it because she was "too young" to understand. I tried to reason with the Lord by saying, "But God she's just a baby. She's not going to understand what I am reading to her." I admit that I did it for a while and then I fell off because I reasoned within myself that she was a small child and I couldn't understand the purpose of reading the actual Bible to her instead of Dr. Seuss or bible stories. But when I got pregnant with my son, I realized that because I was single and a mother that I could not by any means be successful as a parent unless I got close to God and obeyed Him to the letter regarding the upbringing of my children. We took small steps. Psalm 91 was read over my daughter at her Baby Blessing (like a christening but Pentecostals don't believe in baptizing children so the elders and prophets prayed and prophesied over her and assigned a scripture to her.) Well, when I was pregnant with my son, she was three going on four and I felt that it was time for her to know this God who had been so gracious and merciful as to allow me to be her mother. I taught her Psalm 91 and we would pray and she would have to recite Psalm 91 every night before bed. By the time my son was born, I had a blessing said for him and because he was a boy (not to be sexist) but I knew that he would not be a baby always and one day he would be a man and I wanted him to grow up to be a great man of God. Don't get me wrong, I wanted my daughter to grow up to become a great woman of God but because there was no direct positive male influence in his life, I felt that it was imperative that he know God and that is what actually compelled me to get my act together and get right with God. Pentecostals and most Charismatics want to depend on Sunday School and Children's Church to teach their children everything that they need to know about the Lord but the Sunday School teacher and the Children's Church minister doesn't go home with you and what's worse is that they see you go home and live something other than what they were taught at church and that only leads to disillusionment and confusion so that by the time they are teens, unless they are blessed to have an encounter with God on their own that compels them to seek God, they end up using you as a barometer to gauge how they should behave and they'll either become lukewarm, mediocre Christians or they'll reject Christianity altogether because you weren't the example of holiness that they needed and deserved to witness.

My constant prayer is that God will bless me to be the kind of mother that my children need and deserve because they didn't ask to be here and I also understand that it is not about me or what makes me feel good but about the spiritual and psychological health and well-being of my children. It's enough that they don't have a father in the natural right now, I'm all they have and if I don't live an example of holiness before them, then what will they have? I am accountable to God for how I raise them and even more so for the life that I live before them. I'm such a nerd and a square that partying and carousing were never my thing anyway but I love men! But because I love God and I love my children and have come to love myself, men are not even in the equation until God sees fit to bless me with my husband. I miss the companionship of a man but I can't risk the emotional and psychological risk of having serial monogamous relationships in my life and therefore apart of my children's lives. I have to give myself over completely to the Holy Spirit so that even when I'm tempted to jump ahead of God into a relationship, I'll consider what it would do to my children and myself if the man involved is not who God would have me raise my children with as a direct influence and father figure in their lives. Not any old piece of man or breath and breaches (as my grandfather called them) deserves to have any contact or access to my kids and if he's not good enough to meet my kids, then I don't need to be with him! It's that simple!

Over the past year, as a family we have evolved in closeness to each other and to the Only True and Living God! My son turned three this year and I prayed prior to his birthday for the Lord to give me a scripture regarding him and the Lord directed me to Psalm 121. So now he almost knows Psalm 121 and my daughter well, she turned seven and the Lord let me know that it was time for her to learn a new scripture since she'd been reciting Psalm 91 for 3 years and now she is learning Psalm 24 as of her 7th birthday. We have prayer and meditation time together and I read the Word of God to them nightly and in addition to their individual scriptures that they recite nightly prior to going to bed, I also assign a weekly family scripture that we recite every night for a week. I could pop my collar if I wanted to, but I have enough sense to know that all glory and honor belongs to God for revealing to me the importance of living holy before my children and truly training them up in the way that they should go so that when they are older they will not depart from it! I want to see my children grow up to become great people of God and to know that no matter what they go through it's not enough to know God through me or even our pastor or the youth pastor at church but they have to know and have a relationship with God for themselves and everything that I'm doing right now, is not easy and yes, it takes some patience and effort but I know that it is the foundation of my children knowing and being secure in their Christian identity. A lot of parents don't understand and some really don't want to understand just how important it is for them to be an example of holiness or how important it is for them to share their faith with their children on a daily basis because it calls them to a higher level of accountability and responsibility than what they are willing to involve themselves.

I'm not perfect and neither do I portray myself as perfect to my children. I have had to abandon pride and self and become transparent so that my children can see that even in my humanness, God is still merciful, loving and faithful and if He'll be those things for me, He'll be the same for them. Nothing worth having comes easy and raising happy, stable, fulfilled children who love God is well worth it! I'd rather take the time out now than to leave their knowledge of God to chance and simply hope and pray that they will know Him. In these formative years they must know who God, El Shaddai, Elohim, Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rohe, and the Great I Am is through me! It's a huge responsibility but it also helps me to keep in the proper perspective just how important it is for me to know God so that they may know Him, truly know Him and in the name of Jesus not have to suffer needlessly from ignorance because I did not effectively teach and train them up in the way that should go.

Be abundantly blessed!

Mediocrity hates greatness...Be great and let the haters hate!

2 Corinthians 10:3-5