Friday, October 10, 2014

In our last visit we began a study of responsible parenting. Foundational to responsible parenting is providing security for your children by cultivating a healthy marriage. None of us is perfect, but we should be making progress toward a more healthy marriage. The second principle needed for responsible parenting is to model the life we’d like our children to emulate. Our life should be so attractive that our children would want to be like us. If they see us growing in our life and marriage it should encourage them to strive to equal or exceed what they see in us. Joshua pursued that goal. Listen to Joshua 24:15: “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” He had an illustrious career as the leader of Israel. He wanted his legacy to continue in his children and in his nation. Paul said the same thing in Philippians 3:17, “Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.” Every parent should have a similar passion to model the life they would like for their children to emulate. But even if we succeed, there is no guarantee our children will follow in our footsteps. The generation that followed Joshua’s turned their backs on God and started living their lives after their own passions and drifted away from God. Satan is out to destroy the family and has marshaled his cohorts to relentlessly fight to that end. So model Christ-likeness and pray diligently that God will cause your children to follow in your footsteps.