As the mother was completing the purchase of new clothes for Charles and Jonathon, Charles proudly said, “Mom, I am going to wear these new clothes to Bible class Sunday.” A friendly woman standing nearby overheard Charles and asked, “Do you go to Bible class on Sundays?” Charles answered, “Where else would I go on Sunday morning?” Blushing, the woman remarked, “That’s the best sermon I have ever heard.”
The most precious gift we can give our children is not a trip to the beach, expensive toys, or the latest video games; the best gift we can ever give our children is the opportunity to study God’s word every single Sunday humanly possible and instill in them a genuine faith in Jesus Christ. If parents are sloppy in their commitment to Christ they are preaching a terrifying sermon to their children. Children are likely to have less faith… or worse yet, no faith at all if they are raised in a home that professes to be Christian but is lacking in devotion and commitment to Christ. We will give an account to God for our stewardship as parents because these are God’s children more than they are ours.
Our culture is slipping farther and farther away from God. Our culture does not see value in Sunday Christian services. To them, we are out of touch and obsolete. Secularism is king. This polluted attitude has seeped into Christians – many of them are Christian parents. We need to flush out that pollutant. Somehow we must rise above our culture and make God our top priority… especially if we have children. Our Bible classes should be full every Sunday morning; we should have the same number of people in Bible class as we do in worship. And we should never, ever, ever miss Bible study and worship unless we are terribly sick because we love and revere God that much.
– “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Our goal is not to raise our children to be good citizens – our goal is to raise our children to know, love, honor, worship, and imitate God in holiness and love. Then they will be better than good citizens of this world – they will be citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20-21). For that to be a reality we must not “play Christian” – we must make Bible class and worship a top priority in honoring God.
Mike