Raising a Child of God

Today is E’s 8^th birthday. Eight years ago today, God blessed me with a wonderful little girl!  She is so full of spit fire and spunk. Those qualities are both fun for me and trying for me as a mother. 

I pray circles around that girl, that God leads her to use her nature in a most holy way. It’s difficult being a mother and coming to terms with your children and their futures. I find it heart-wrenching to think about the trials she may face, but exciting to imagine how she will face them. As a mother, I know that my God given task is to instill in her a deep spirituality from which she can build.

Rue is really great at this sort of thing… I on the other hand still fall flat on my face-often. I listen sometimes to the conversations she has with her oldest child and am just amazed at the wisdom she has and how cleverly she imparts it.

 

It is in those teaching times that the building blocks of their future are laid and layered. I pray that God gives me many, many opportunities to grow and excel in this area and that one day E will be a holy example of God’s grace, his omnipotent, divine, grace.

So how does one actually go about the task of raising a child of God? Here are a few ideas I have:

1.  Set a Godly example. Show the character of Christ to your children. You are their first hand example in this area. Be honest, prayerful, bold, creative, decisive, dependable, joyful, kind, and  patient. (Tall order I know, but this is the calling.)

 

-Deuteronomy 6: 6-9:

“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

 

2.  Give them resources and teach them how to use them. We may not have the answer, but we know where the answer to every situation lies.

 

-John 1:14:

“Whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

 

3.  Teach them God’s promises and how to claim them! Our children need to know that God isn’t big and imaginary. That our God loves and hears us and is faithful to His people.

 

-Joshua 21:45:

“Not one word of all the good words which the LORD your God spoke concerning you has failed; all have been fulfilled for you, not one of them has failed.”