Sunday, March 10, 2013

Ways to Love Your Children








Sermon notes from "10 Ways to Love Your Children" by Elizabeth George:

"...Doing things God's way is always a matter of the heart.  That includes choosing to focus your heart on raising your children God's way and praying with each breath that they'll develop hearts after God.  Dear mom, no matter what your situation at home is, whether your children believe in Jesus Christ or not, whether their young or older, whether their dad is a Christian or not, whether you're new in the faith or know a lot, whether years of ignorance or neglect of God's word have gone by up to this point, do your best from this second on!  Give your best efforts.  And since you want your children to love God and follow Him, set the focus of YOUR heart on God and let them see you love Him and follow Him.  Just be a mom after God's own heart.  He'll help you take care of everything else. ...When (one of my daughters) was expecting one of her children, our church hosted a baby shower for her and our Pastor's wife asked me to share a devotional during the party.  When I began preparing for the shower talk, they told me that I had ten minutes.  So I wrote out a brief list I titled "10 Ways to Love Your Children".  Believe me, it was a soul searching exercise to go through my Bible from cover to cover and look back at my own attempts at child raising, and it was a lot of fun at the shower to pass my list onto the other moms and grand moms who were at every age and stage of parenting.  Now here's the list:

1.  Take time to nurture your heart.

Deuteronomy 6: 6 puts it this way: "And these words (God's words), which I command you today shall be in your heart..."  You can't possibly love your children and do everything that's required of you without nurturing your own heart first, so don't neglect yourself in this area.  Before we can ever mother and train our precious children, we need to take care of business with God.  We need to take care of our own hearts.  We're to love the Lord and obey His word.  His word is to live in our hearts.  It really is all about us as moms, and then our godly training of our children and our diligent teaching of God's word will follow.  I like the way one Bible teacher summed up Deuteronomy 6: 4-9.  He says, "We are to love God, think constantly about His commandments, teach His commandments to our children, and live each day by the guidelines of His word."  As a mom, when I didn't take time to nurture my heart, guess what happened?  I was running on empty most of the time.  I had no spiritual energy.  I was on autopilot which meant I began putting up with things the way they were.  I made very little effort to mold my child's heart toward God.  And believe me, there was a lot of screaming, yelling, and bad behavior going on!  The solution is simple, but you've got to take advantage of it.  Pick up the Bible and read it.  When you do, God will touch and transform your heart into the mom you so want to be for your children.  For starters, get a hold of a one year Bible.  Read it ten minutes a day.  You'll find you've read through the entire Bible in no time.  It's a little choice that'll reap big benefits both in your heart and in the hearts of your children.  It will accelerate you down the path to becoming a more dedicated mother after God's own heart.

2.  Teach your children God's word.

Romans 10: 17 says "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God".  I became a Christian several years after (my daughters) were born and my life changed as God began to work in my heart.  I bought a Bible and I read it, every chance I got.  It was incredibly eye opening to me and it wasn't long before I started teaching my little ones about God too.  If you think you need to have a teaching degree or experience in order to do what God asks of you as mom, good news: You don't!  God only requires of you a heart that desires to follow after Him and obey His directive to teach your kids.  If you love your children, and I know you do, teach them God's word!  And the earlier, the better.  Your faithful teaching of your children gives them a foundation to live their lives God's way.  The Old Testament Jewish custom emphasized religion from the cradle to the grave.  ...You can never begin too early to teach God's word diligently to your children.

3.  Talk to your children about God.

So how do you fit that into an already crammed schedule?  Deuteronomy 6: 6-7 comes to our rescue.  It says, "And these words which I command you today will be in your heart.  And you will talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up."  Just talk about God through out the day in the normal comings and goings.  When you do, you honor and glorify Him.  You obey His teaching to talk of Him to your children and your chances for positively affecting and impacting your children go sky high.  You never know what wonderful things will happen as you faithfully obey God.  So, speak up!  ...Do some soul searching.  Ask yourself some tough questions, think about what you talk about with your kids.  What do you point them toward?  What activities do you reward most?  What achievements thrill you the most?  What accomplishments make you the happiest?  It's never too late to commit yourself to the priority of teaching God's word, of talking about Him, of pointing ALL of life toward Him. ...

4.  Tell your children about Jesus.

...Telling your children about Jesus; what a privilege!  And what a challenge!  As moms, there's no question: we love our children.  Feed them, take care of them, worry over them, and pray over them.  But as a mom after God's own heart, we're also to be full fledged ambassadors for Christ to our children.  Here's a thought provoking question I was asked as a young mom: "What do you consider to be the target of all you do for your kids?  What's the purpose of your parenting?"  How to tie shoe laces?  Good manners?  How to catch a ball?  How to make an A?  Respect for others?  The list is endless, isn't it, and all good and well.  But are you making sure to tell them about Jesus?  As moms, we must wake up every morning and say without a doubt, that today, if I don't get anything else done, I must teach my children about my Lord Jesus.  Read out loud to your children from the Gospels.  Have them share in the reading too.  Have them memorize verses that point to salvation.  John 14: 6 is a great one!  "Jesus said, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.' "  Even your three year old can scrawl out a few letters of the alphabet!  Well, make those letters "J E S U S".  Encourage your children to write letters and prayers to Jesus about what they're learning.  Only God can save your child's soul.  And only God can work in your child's heart.  But His Spirit works through YOU.  Your little flock is right there at home, so make telling your children about Jesus the priority purpose of your parenting.  Be faithful to prepare, to teach, and to preach.  Be faithful to hang in there and persist, and never give up.

5.  Train your children in God's ways.

I love Susanna Wesley's practical rules for rearing children.  As a mother of John Wesley and eighteen other children, this noble mother's two hundred year old plus rules are still helpful today.  ...Here's one that sounds a bit old fashioned, but you know it's so true even of children today:  "Subdue self will in a child and thus work together with God to save his soul."  "Teach each one to pray as soon as he can speak."  "Require all to be still during family worship."  "Give them nothing they cry for and only that for which they ask for politely."  "Never allow a sinful act to go unpunished."  "Commend and reward good behavior."  "Strictly observe all promises."  ...It's never too early to start training your children and it's also never too late.

6.  Take care of your children.

...My friend Lisa taught Home Economics at a university and in a book she co-authored called "Designing a Lifestyle That Pleases God", she shared her culture shock of motherhood and her struggle to adjust to her role as a new mom, and the care and the time it requires.  Sound familiar?  ...(Here's) what I call "Little choices that reap big blessings":  Bone up on diet and nutrition.  The health of your loved ones depends on your knowing more about these things.  If it's possible, get everyone together at the same time for at least one meal each day.  Keep kids physically active, and that's no easy job in this day of TV, computers, games, and text messaging.  Everything's working against any real physical playtime.  And do I have to say, 'Limit TV time'?  That goes for any screen involvement; computers, gaming, phones.  Have some resemblance of a daily routine.  You'll do better and so will your children.  Double check reasons behind misbehavior.  Is it lack of sleep?  Are there other issues that need to be looked at?  Even abusive behaviors?  Make sure you have fun times, and that includes you and your husband.  And most of all, plan a special break in your mommy madness.  It's absolutely a requirement if you're going to be encouraged in your role of being a mom after God's own heart."

7.  Take your children to church.

Sundays are a real commitment of time, I understand that.  Yet this one practice slowly, steadily, and surely over time, ingrains something into a soul.  Sooner or later it makes a difference in a life, a heart, and in a family.  God used our parent's dedication to taking US to church to eventually get US back to church, to cause US to want to take our children to church where I became a Christian and (my husband) renewed his commitment to Christ.  And then, you've probably guessed it, in time, our little ones became believers in Christ.  And they are now taking their little ones to church.

8.  Teach your children to pray.

...Children are so wonderful when it comes to prayer.  They want to pray.  Even a baby in a highchair will fold his or her little hands into a fist, scrunch their eyes shut, take a peek or two, and say something resembling 'amen' when the prayers finished.  When you get a minute to yourself (and I'm smiling as I say that!), think through your normal day (and okay, there's another smile!).  Think of what you and your children have to give thanks for and where you need God's help, then show them the way.  ...I was told once, 'Elizabeth, remember that everything you do and don't do teaches'.  So dear mom, when you pray, you teach your children to pray.  When you pray with your kids, you teach them to pray.  And when you don't, you're teaching them prayer isn't that important, so pray, pray, pray.  Let them see and hear your passion for God.

9.  Try your best.

Colossians 3: 23 says, "And whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord, not to others."  Lift up your prayers and cries to God for wisdom, for discernment, for His strength, and most of all, for His grace.  Let me encourage you that it's the same for all mothers.  Being a mother is a commitment, a responsibility, and a calling from God for a lifetime.  And being a mom is our highest joy and our greatest challenge.  So what can we do?  Every time you ask yourself that question, the answer is always the same: You can only try to do your best.  It's one more way you can love your children.  Elisabeth Elliot wrote, "There is no nobler career than that of motherhood at its best."  I believe with all my heart that your best is born out of knowing who you are.  If you have children, you're one of God's moms!  That's who you are.  Loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength is and always will be your ultimate priority.  Realize too, that, on every single one of your days, the world will be sending you signals that you're a nobody unless you're a focused, sold out, working woman.  Moms' old fashioned.  They'll tell you, 'You need to take care of yourself', that you're number one, that your kids will make it just fine without your constant care, but they're wrong.  You can rest in your heart and know with all the confidence and strength in the world who you are and what it is you're to do.  Here's my best advice for you:  Just focus on making today count.  Try your best to be the best mother you can be, just for today.  Oh, you'll have days when you're an utter failure.  We all do.  But don't give up.  The reward is too great to not give it your all each and every day.

10.  And talk to God about your children.

"Be anxious for nothing", says Philippians 4: 6, it goes on, "But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God."  The same principle applies to your children.  Prepare, educate, and train the whole child.  Physically, we take care of our children to the best of our ability so they're healthy, strong, and fully developed.  Mentally, we make sure they're educated and equipped for life.  But spiritually, we teach, train, and show the way, and pray.  ...No matter what your children's ages, you'll be teaching your children the Scriptures that will train them for God and guide their lives.  And you'll be talking to your child about God at any and every opportunity.  But most of all, you're going to be talking to God about each of your precious ones.  And mom, do it with all your heart, for life!  ...purpose in your heart to do what you do heartily, faithfully, willingly, excellently, joyfully, prayerfully, and thankfully.

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