If you go through the Bible, there appears to not be as much instruction on raising children as there is on other topics. At least for us, we were hoping for a lot more detailed instructions on raising kids from the Bible. And you might ask yourself why is it that the details aren’t there? If you think about it, the emphasis was on adults and not so much on parenting. The emphasis was on adults growing spiritually and becoming spiritually mature. And if the adults became spiritually mature, then they would model that maturity and Christlikeness to their kids. And so the big emphasis in the Bible when it comes to parenting is not so much how to raise children but to have parents transfer Biblical values to their children through modeling them in their own lives.
One passage in particular that talks about parenting would be Deuteronomy 6 and then the book of Proverbs is loaded with wisdom to be passed along. We would encourage you as a parent that if you want to get insight into raising your kids, to look at different Proverbs over and over again.
So lets look a some things from the Bible and some things we have tried that will help you as a parent.
Here is our first tip. You must be in charge. Understand that you’ve got to be in charge. The Bible says, “Correct your son, and he will give you rest; Yes, he will give delight to your soul.” The Message paraphrase says, “Intelligent children listen to their parents; foolish children do their own thing.” If intelligent children listen to their parents, that means somebody has to be the parent. Somebody has to be in charge. So if you are going to be in charge, you are going to have to understand your role as a parent. Are you a coach, or are you a dictator? Are you your kid’s trusted advisor? Are you their confidant? Or are you their best friend? Its our opinion that way too many parents today, want to be liked by their children. They want to be best friends with their children. But here is the pitfall to being their best friend. You put yourself in the situation where you want to be liked above all costs. So automatically, you are going to compromise your capacity to be in charge because you will do whatever you need to do to be liked, instead of what is right according to God’s plan. So while its OK to ask your kids for input when it comes decisions regarding family values, you as mom and dad are in charge and it is your responsibility to lead your children towards Christ. As responsible parents we have to be in charge. And the Bible is not talking about being the ruthless dictator. Its talking about loving your children enough to be involved in their spiritual development and their character development. If we don’t engage in this God given responsibility to pass along His wisdom, they’ll get it from somewhere else. And the Bible warns us about worldly wisdom. So you be the one to influence your children. You be the one to transfer the Godly wisdom to them. You be in charge.
