The Care and Maintenance of Your Child

Sermon OverviewScripture Passage: Mark 10:13In Mark 10, Jesus revealed His great love for children, and their tremendous importance to His kingdom. Our children are blessed gifts and bundles of potentiality from God, which we are responsible for teaching and training up. Though it is not by any means easy, it is simple; the Bible offers insight on the care and maintenance of our children.Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”We must communicate with our children, and we must begin early. Children have a God-given instinct to ask why—a beautiful curiosity that we must nurture. They believe our every word, and trust us until we give them reason not to. What an amazing opportunity to teach and train our children.We must see our children as unique; they are like no other, and they must know they were specifically designed by God. When we see our children as unique before God, we learn to communicate with them creatively.We must also be real with our children, letting them see our faults so that they learn, not only how to succeed, but how to fail.Adrian Rogers says, “Your kids don’t demand perfection, but they do demand reality.”There must also be correction; we discipline our children because we love them and because our human nature is foolish. Children need to understand morality and learn to fear God.When we discipline our children, we spare ourselves heartache and disgrace in the long run, and we may save them from further judgment. We must begin disciplining when a child is old enough to knowingly and willfully disobey. We should rebuke before we chastise, disciplining with love and patience, letting it be over once it’s over, and never holding grudges.Ultimately, we pray that there will be a conversion; our holy goal is to lead our children to Jesus. We should pray for their salvation and seek it out early. Our responsibility is not to block or shove our children into a relationship with Jesus, but rather, to guide them in wisdom.Apply it to your lifeAre you raising your children with communication, correction, and conversion in mind? Make these three things your goal today; aim to care for your children in a way that glorifies the Lord.