03/17/2026
Monday Parents and Children
Children have a vital role as part of the family firm. They need to know they are loved and valued as members of the family and citizens of the heavenly kingdom. Family worship is crucial, simple but regular, morning and evening. At an early age, children can start helping with cleaning and other responsibilities. Most important, they should heed Paul's command: "Obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord" (Col. 3:20, NKJV).
Q Read the following passages. What principles are given for raising children?
Prov. 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. … 15 Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
Matt. 19:14 but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
Deut. 6:6-7 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 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.
Prov. 1:8-9 8 Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, 9 for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.
Rightly trained for the Lord, by precept and example, children will be a blessing to the family, the church, and beyond. And Paul's instruction for parents, like his instruction for husbands and wives, is balanced and reciprocal: "Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged" (Col. 3:21, NKJV). How parents, particularly the father, interact with and discipline children profoundly impacts their spiritual upbringing.
Studies show, too, that when both parents go to church, a higher percentage of children remain churchgoers, as opposed to if only one parent goes. Even more surprising, consistent church attendance by the father, even more than by the mother, means a greater number of children remain in church as adults. The role of the father, then, in the spiritual formation of his children, cannot be underestimated. How crucial that fathers take their roles seriously.
