Do Not Curse Your Children

Our actions have consequences for ourselves and our children.

Acts 2:39   "For the promise is unto you, and to you children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."

Peter had just finished preaching a sermon to many of the same people who had just put Jesus to death eight and a half weeks earlier. He preached to them explaining who Jesus is and their need to be saved. Many of his hearers did feel their need for Christ. Their conscience no doubt was smitten for putting Jesus to death and also for their words at His trial. Pilate found no reason to have Jesus put to death. In response, in Matthew 27:25 "Then answered all the people and said, His blood be on us and our children." This terrible curse had to be on the minds of Peter and his hearers when Peter said "This promise is unto you and to your children". There was hope! The curse they called upon themselves and their children would have no power for all who repent and receive forgiveness...As many as the Lord our God shall call.

Do you curse your children, standing in the way of their salvation by anything you do, neglect to do, or by your own sinful example? There is hope. Repent and believe yourself. Then do everything you can to see your children do the same. Show them the love of Christ and a godly example and pray for them.

 

afar off

Let Opposition Drive You To God

"Think upon me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people."
Nehemiah 5:19   

Nehemiah had a good work to do. He was in charge of building the defensive wall of Jerusalem after it had been destroyed about 70 years earlier. It was a massive job that would require almost super-human effort by Nehemiah and the people even in the best of circumstances. However, the circumstances were far from good. They faced opposition on several different fronts. Nehemiah did not let the opposition slow him down, but rather he used his own personal example of generosity, hard work, and selflessness to show the people how to live. He also used the opposition as an opportunity to pray for God's blessing. "Think upon me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people. At first glance, this may sound like a selfish prayer, but it is not. When a selfless man asks for blessings on himself, everyone benefits because that man is quick to share God's goodness with others.

Can you, as a father, honestly pray the prayer of Nehemiah? Have you done your family good? If God blesses you, will you selflessly share the blessing with your family? Raising a family in a godly way is a super-human effort in the best of circumstances, but Satan makes sure that there is plenty of opposition along with a multitude of bad examples. Let the opposition drive you to God. If God blesses you, you will bless your family.

A Book Review on "Raising Godly Tomatoes" by L. Elizabeth Krueger

In Titus chapter two, there are commands given to five different groups of people: older men, older women, young men, young women, and servants. In a blog for fathers, this may seem a little odd, but we are going to focus on what it says to the women. There are things that fathers can glean about raising children and being godly husbands.

Titus 2:3-5  "The aged women likewise...That they may teach the young women to...love their children, to be...keepers at home..."

First, by implication we can see that our wives need our leadership and support in their difficult task or raising your children. Second, we learn that the less experienced younger person should listen to and even seek to be taught by the more wise and experienced older person. There is a lot we do not know. It is sinful pride to think we know so much that teaching is not necessary. The Bible itself tells us that our wives need to be taught how to love and raise their children. If our wives need to be taught what comes naturally to them, how much more do we fathers need to be taught what does not come as naturally to us?

About a year ago, shortly after I finally decided to get serious and do whatever it takes to raise my children in a way that honors God, I read a book called "Raising Godly Tomatoes: Loving Parenting With Only Occasional Trips to the Woodshed" by L. Elizabeth Krueger. I read it, then I re-read it, and now I am reading it for a third time. It is written by a mother of ten children primarily to mothers of small children. As a father I will say that it is just as helpful to fathers as it is to mothers. Mrs Krueger uses the Bible as she dispenses wise and experienced advice and cuts through all of the nonsense and gets to the hearts of both children and and parents. The central tenets are: God has put the parents over the children and not the other way around, be consistent, keep your children close to you and know what they are doing, and go to the child's heart and the behavior will follow.

This book has changed my family's life for the better in practical ways second only to the Bible. Read this book. It will not take you long because it is hard to set down. Then give it to your wife to read. Or, better yet, read it with her.

Lessons From Illness

John 11:4 "...This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." 

My family recently went through a time of illness. It was not a serious illness; just colds. However, we have a newborn. If she would have caught the cold, the consequences would have been far more serious. Because of this, my daughter and wife spent about four or five days with her parents. The other four children (ages two to ten) stayed with me. It is not easy watching four children while cooking, cleaning, going to work, dealing with illness, potty training the youngest, etc. It was hard on all of us.

I believe it was Jonathan Edwards who said that God did not always send illness as a punishment for sin, but it should be a time of repentance and spiritual reflection. I have always told my children this when they have been ill. It seemed that God not only sent illness to help my children grow spiritually, but also for me. I learned to appreciate my wife more. What she does is very difficult, yet she manages to get it done. That would have been harder to realize had she not been gone for a while. Also, my wife was not here to help me with the children, so my faults at fathering were greatly magnified to the point where I knew there needed to be changes. The most important thing that I learned is that I had been allowing my children to be lazy. When I had to do everything myself with little to no help from my children, it quickly became clear that I have some training to do with them. I have been working at this, but deeply entrenched bad habits are hard to change. With hard work and much prayer, we are seeing some improvement.
I can truly say with the psalmist : (Psalm 119:71) "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes."