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BLOG:Raising Children Who Love God
July 4, 2009
3:45 am


Learning, Discovering & Inspiring!




Most Important
- 04.29.2009 - Article Number: 10

So what is the single most important thing when it comes to raising children who love God?
Well, we have spoken about it a lot, it seems that you need to actually love HIM yourself!
Unfortunately when we want others, especially our children to do the same, all too often we boil it down to a whole lot of rules, that does not actually contain or in any way guarantee that love! However, the Bible makes it very clear that the LAW came to show us a whole lot of things, but essentially, it shows us our need for HIM! Therefore we need to put rules on our children, for the same reason. To allow them to find out for themselves that they need HIM! This realization also works together to build a new respect in their hearts FOR HIM! We cannot love what we do NOT have any respect for! Therefore what might seem very restrictive, actually can help! It can help build the structure and foundation necessary for that love for God to grow! Naturally, it presupposes we do ALL prayerfully! ALWAYS




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How
- 04.27.2009 - Article Number: 9

You cannot pass on what you don't have! For us to have our children LOVE God, WE ourselves, must first LOVE God! Strangely enough, sometimes God overrides that! The Bible says that even thru the foolishness of preaching men are saved, - or even in spite of it? We know that Martin Luther and Charles Wesley both preached justification thru faith, for years, (even having people come to a saving knowledge of His grace, thru their ministry,) BEFORE they found a saving knowledge of HIS grace, for themselves! There seems to be something, which is more powerful! God's WORD created EVERYTHING! God's WORDS are powerful! Therefore when we speak His Word, it overrides all kinds of otherwise sound principles! His Word never returns to Him void, but it ALWAYS accomplishes that for which it was sent!

We must never underestimate what HE can and will do to save us, given even the smallest chance! None-the-less it never can be an excuse for us, not to work on our love FOR HIM! What we DO have, we CAN pass on! If we DO love God, and want our children to love Him also, we can start by working on loving Him more,ourselves! He will do the rest! His love NEVER fails!




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Submitting to LOVE
- 11.30.2008 - Article Number: 7

When training our children, we need to teach them about submission. Submission, is a word very rarely used together with LOVE. We think of rulers forcing their subjects into submission. We think of submitting to rules, or force used in various ways. We think of manipulation and circumstances, forcing us into submission, but submission to LOVE, or BECAUSE of love, seems strange! Love is generally perceived as a soft, and gentle thing. Certainly not a force, and certainly not something that would bring about submission! The Bible, however, speaks of US voluntarily submitting, because of God's love! It is never God, forcing submission, but us giving it freely, that is what He desires!

This submission thing is a strange thing! We are not forced into submission by God! That would be contrary to His character! He doesn’t go about humbling, and embarrassing us, forcing our submission. Instead He asks us to submit out of our own free will! We do so, because of who He is, and who we believe Him to be!
The One we are submitting to, IS Love! That is why we submit! But we also submit out of love for HIM, to Him, as well as to others!
It is Love Himself who causes us to submit, for the sake of His love for us!
We submit because of faith. We believe in His love for us! We believe in Who He is: LOVE!
That is why we submit, because we believe He wants the best for us!
Not only do we believe that He is love and wants the best for us, we also believe in Him, that He is almighty, and able to make the good happen, that He intends for us!

We do not submit naturally. There seems to be a rebel in each of us, unless tamed or willfully subjected by ourselves, it will not allow us to submit! We need to learn this submission. It is sometimes simply called self discipline, and certainly there is some of that! But it is more, because of it’s motivation: LOVE! This is something we need to learn! We need to teach our children this by lovingly guiding them. We also need to limit them. When we model the loving authority to them, they learn from a young age the self restraint that love puts on them, and the battle is more easily won later on! We are NOT loving our children when we allow them to be unkind or undisciplined or making foolish choices. To insist on respect and righteousness, might seem tough, but it is the most loving and will pay off!
They get a friendly training ground, and practice for what is ahead for them! It is a skill they cannot do without!




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Spoiling children for the world!
- 11.05.2008 - Article Number: 5

Spoiling children for the world!
That’s what I heard a pastor say, when I was still very new in the things of God! He said, that he was exposed to the things of God at an early age. He was speaking in tongues and prophesying at age 5, full of the things of the Spirit of God, he got so carried away, that he fell off the chair he was standing on, while prophesying in the meeting! He said there came a time in his life, when he deliberately chose to try out the things of the world! He thought that he had to try it some time, but he was spoiled for the things of the world! His parents had given him too much of God, for him to ever be satisfied with anything less!

Food Example
What a testimony! I know that it sometimes works like that with good wholesome food. I have found if I have been eating good wholesome food, exclusively, for a time, I actually cannot appreciate the artificial and excessively unhealthy foods, which I otherwise indulge in, (or even crave!) The GOOD spoils me for the bad! When it comes to GOD, it is just INFINATELY MORE so! Once anyone has really encountered God, Himself, His Great Wonderful Beauty, they simply cannot remain unchanged! It is because we have accepted counterfeits, and copies, simplified versions and other representations of GOD, that is the reason so-called Christians (raised in Christian homes) remain open to the lure of the world!

Unadulterated God Himself!
I have found again and again, well meaning parents, who try to “simplify” things for their children, when presenting the things of God to them. In so doing, they loose God, His Charm, His intrigue, His beauty, His APPEAL! There certainly are so many things in the Bible that are most unpalatable, difficult to understand and things that are down right horrible! We try to be a sensor board, in order to do a good PR (Public Relations) job for God. Thing is, The Holy Spirit is God’s official spokes Person, and we cannot do a better job than Him, no matter how well intended! That’s where we need to get to! The real thing! GOD HIMSELF! That can spoil our children for the world, and we’ll not ever need to tell them “not to” do all the rebellious things the world tries to entice them with!

Building a Moral Framework
Having said that, I must hasten to add, this in no small task, nor is it easily accomplished, in fact, I’m not sure we can EVER consider it DONE, finished, over.! We have to bring them up in the fear and admonition of the LORD. We have to continually tell and show them right from wrong! Like the law, holding us accountable, and forcing outward conformity, UNTILL the inward, life bringing law can take over! However, our Trump card (so to say) remains God Himself! That they sold encounter HIM! There is nothing that can and in for that, and that is the same for them as for us, and as we seek Him, they will learn more from that, than any amount of our trying to make it palatable acceptable understandable or accessible to them!




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Learning from my mistakes
- 11.03.2008 - Article Number: 2

Shortcut
Since I only came into a vital relationship with God, when I was already an adult myself, I naturally questioned if I could give my children a short cut. I had wasted so much time and energy, before getting to any purposeful pursuits, that I desired to help my children not make the same mistakes. I cannot help recall what my father often said when I was a youth at home: He said: “I could give you a thirty-year-shortcut, my child, if you’d only let me!” Apparently it didn’t work with me.

Salvation
The first and foremost thing that bugged me, was the issue of being saved! Yes, I know many, many theological questions come into it, and I cannot begin to solve them all, or even wish to. For me, once I became convinced that we all need to be saved, or need to have a secure future, naturally the highest priority was, that my children should have the same secure future. Now I know I really needed a Savior! I had not committed murder or anything like that, but my heart convinced me I had not kept ALL God’s commandments, and that makes me guilty according to the Bible, of breaking ALL God’s commandments! I had my own share of faults and wrong choices in my past. I had no intention to let my children try all the bad stuff first, in order to create a reason to repent! I happen to believe the scripture that says: “for ALL have sinned and come short the glory of God”. I also grew up surrounded by the truth of God’s Word, but amazingly, that truth had not set me free until after I had turned twenty-one! I was determined for it not to happen to my children! I was only too aware of how easily things could have turned out differently for me, and I also saw too many others, of my age who didn’t get to the wonderful salvation that I did. I was simply not prepared to take any chances with my children, on this!

The big problem was, this did not seem to be an issue that could be solved through shear determination, or by merely trying. I needed a much more secure strategy. I cannot say I didn’t agonize over this considerably. Yes, it has got to be a mighty work of God Himself in their hearts, but in as much as we have a role to play, I had to make sure the shortfall was NOT on my side. Now I also knew from much evidence that trying too hard or in the wrong way, could only have a converse effect. I have often stood amazed after all the elements that were in place in my childhood, that I didn’t turn to God much earlier and how it could have been possible for me to so resist Him and His love, after all I had been given me! It seemed to me that every single thing I could come up with, to bring up godly children, was in my childhood! I guess my long resistance is simple evidence of the sinful streak in human nature.

So far I am now convinced of the following:
(1) Children can understand sin and repent FOR REAL, at a very early age, (as young as two years), and have it stick! We should NOT postpone just cause we think they need some more “worldly experience” in order to truly “REPENT”. They cannot be left to experience EVERYHTING and then make up their OWN minds! That is the craziest idea I have yet heard people come up with! If you refuse to tell and show them the truth, the Devil will, and so will the world and countless others. The problem is, it will NOT be the truth, but it will be presented as such. They will be left deceived, and end up having to pay eternally for your mistake! Unless you tell and show them the truth, in fact they won’t know any better. Nor can you present everything as equal value, in the hope that they will then decide for themselves! They need your ultimate guideline from Gods absolute value to make sense of things. These things NEVER just come by themselves! Anything left to itself, WILL deteriorate, that is the law of sin and death! It will rule over them if you let it!
(2) They will catch whatever we have. We cannot pretend on this issue. If my personal relationship with God is not priority, or if it is mere drudgery, that is what children will get. They will either hate and reject it or embrace it based on what it is they get from us! If there are things between me and God that are not attractive, it will have the same repelling effect on them! I happen to believe what the Bible says about God and relating to Him, that He is altogether beautiful and that He and relating to Him is ultimately appealing. That once we truly encounter Him, we are eternally spoiled for anything else. Therefore to get to that, instead of a misunderstanding where I might be stuck at for the moment, is vital for my relationship with God! That is also vital in order to pass the real thing on to children, and not a “mistake” that will put them off from God!
(3) We can and should make a difference in our children’s lives. We have a mandate before God, more that that, we will have to give account to God of what we did and didn’t do to make sure they also inherit His promises. We can, and need to get from God specific and unique vision for each child and pray that and keep on praying that! There is no shortcut for that! It is bound to make a greater difference than all the words spoken to them!

Therefore to pray and keep on praying and then a most generous dose of Grace and Mercy from God Himself, is required.




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Raising Godly Children
- 10.22.2008 - Article Number: 1

This really takes commitment, but the challenge is fun too.




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