PARENTS AND CHILDREN

By Pastor Ken Storm

Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.

Ephesians 6:1
T he counsel of the Apostle Paul in this epistle is given to prompt children everywhere to carefully consider their station in life and how to conduct themselves toward their Christian parents. God's Word teaches children to Honour thy fatherand thy mother… (Exodus 20:12) No greater honor can children bestow on their parents than to be obedient to their wishes. In doing so, they demonstrate to all their love and respect and, most importantly, their reverence for God's Word.

First, let us be reminded that having believing parents is one of the greatest blessings any child can have. It is a wonderful gift of God. Too often this blessing is taken for granted and children fail to recognize this as God's love and favor toward them and forget to thank Him for mom and dad.

Remember, dear children, mom and dad won't be with you forever. It is far better to show them love and respect, through obedience, to their joy while they are yet with you than to weep tears of regret for your disobedience at their graveside. Sadly, there are many homes today where unbelieving parents, lacking godly wisdom, have no inclination to teach their children in the ways of the Lord, for they themselves are not readers, hearers or doers of God's Word.

The Bible teaches, very clearly, how parents should raise their children, and it also warns of the dire consequences for parents who fail to heed such instruction. The result of such neglect becomes evident as we see many children so often unruly and disobedient at home and disruptive in school. As they grow toward adulthood, they begin to challenge their parents' authority at home, the teachers' authority in school, and even the very laws of our society.

From this behavior then spawns all manner of lovelessness and a general disregard for God and man. Prayerfully considered and prayerfully carried out with the help of God, His instruction for parents is not difficult. What it does require is a sincere dedication on the part of the parents to earnestly begin teaching their children at an early age and patient continuance throughout their formative years.

King Solomon, in the book of Proverbs said: Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6) Although sometimes a rebellious and disobedient child will disregard such instruction and choose to enter an ungodly lifestyle, those seeds planted in that youthful heart by a loving parent will never be forgotten.

Surely the prayer of every Christian parent is that such wayward children would remember those teachings of their loving parents and return to the sheepfold from which they have strayed. Even today there are many Christian parents with heavy hearts, whose pillows are nightly stained with tears, praying that our heavenly Father would give increase to the seed they have sown into the hearts of their precious children. Oh, that such prodigal sons and daughters would return home where God's grace and forgiveness abounds and where in the blood of Jesus all sins are proclaimed forgiven and where living faith can be rekindled. ~