The ABC's of training my children

One of the biggest concerns I've had since becoming a Christian is my children growing up and leaving the faith. I have heard so many people say they were raised in a Christian home but now they no longer believe. When they leave home or are not in the presents of their parents they act like the world. They do a good job of playing the role while at home and they say all the right things, but when temptation is staring them in the face they fail. They choose to sin and not to pursue holiness. When I think of my own children I don't want this to be their story. I hate to think that all the teaching and training I have poured into them will be tossed aside when they leave home or when they face a temptation. I know temptation will come so that area I have no control over. On the upside the more I mature as a Christian the more I learn to trust God with them. A few verses come to mind. Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it. Philippians 1:6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. There are so many others I have leaned to trust in pertaining to this topic. So what I have come up with is The ABC's to training my children. The ABC's in an acrostic that stand for 4 key points that I will focus on in teaching and training my children. The first one is The Gospel, then the A stands for Absolute truth, B stands for Biblical discernment, C stands for a Christian worldview.

First and foremost is teaching them the gospel. What I don't want to do is to tell them that Jesus wants to live in their hearts, then ask them "do you want Jesus to live in your heart?", "if you don't ask Jesus to live in your heart you won't go to heaven with him." YIKES! That is not The Gospel I will teach my children. I want to teach my children the whole gospel starting with Genesis, the creation of Adam and Eve, the disobedience of Adam, which is The Fall and were sin begain. I will teach them the Ten Commandments, to memorize them, and that when you break any of the them you disobey God which is a sin. That sin must be punished. That God send Jesus (and that Jesus is Himself God), He lived a sinless life, died on the cross to pay the punishment of sin. That the only way to receive that forgiveness is to repent of your sins and put your faith/trust in Jesus as your savior. I know that seams like alot for my 5 year old to get, but I don't want to water down the true gospel just so I can feel good that my kids now have Jesus in their heart and they're good to go. I don't think my kids would understand what "ask Jesus into your hearts" means anyway. I do believe the older my kids get and the more they hear the true gospel the better chance of them getting it and truly getting saved. I don't want to give them a false since of assurance. The true gospel is one that leads to a changed life and will be with them I am not around and temptation knocks on their hearts door. Asking Jesus into their heart will not lead to a changes life and will not help them when they are staring into the face of temptation.


The other lesson I want to teach my children is the truth that there is Absolute Truth. This point actually builds up the gospel. It expands the gospel to more than just the home. In other words this is not just the beliefs of your mom and I, it is an absolute truth pertaining to all of mankind. It will also equips my children when introduced to the idea of relative truth. That is all ideas and beliefs are valid and can be true to you. When they are asked what makes your belief better than the others they can answer confidently "it is because my belief is based on the absolute truth of the word of God." If I teach them that the bible is absolute truth they will not be shaken by postmodern claims or what every false claims comes next.

I think the next lesson follows perfectly. I want my children to have Biblical discernment. Discernment is the ability to separate truth from error, what is right from what is wrong. Biblical discernment is the ability to separate what the bible says from what it does not say. To do this they must have the pervious lesson down. Not just that the concept that absolute truth exist, but what is it and what it is not. This of course can only be done by digging into the bible and learning what is says. That is what I are doing when I teach my children the bible. When they get out on their own they will be bombarded with ton of false ideas and claims. People will tell them that twhat the bible really says is such and such and what it realy means is this and that. They need to be able to know what is true and what is false. This is how they can stay on the straight path and not be ...tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; Ephesians 4:14

This last one is something I have thought alot about lately and that is having a Christian worldview. Honestly if they have the first three down this one will fall right in place, but it is still important to work on. What about when they run into those things that are not explicitly talked about in the bible how will they handle them. I have to remind myself that this is about training them how to think on their own without me or their mom being around to tell them what they should think about a certain matter. I need to teach them how to think not what to think. A person's worldview is very important because everyone has one. It is the glasses in which one wears when viewing the world. A Christian worldview is when one sees through biblical glasses and it is up to me as their dad to help keep those glasses in focus. I don't want them trading in their glass with the worlds when they leave home.