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Sometimes parents miss something very important. So many of them sit in my office, saying, "We did everything the Bible said for us to do."

"Exactly what did you do?" I ask.

"Well, we disciplined when we were supposed to and we had our kids in church all the time."

But you need to realize that just having your kids in church is no automatic answer.

There are some laws that have to hook up together. Let's look at Isaiah. It says:
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.

For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.
(Isa. 28:9-10)
If we have been doing according to this Scripture and putting the Word of God into our child's heart, by the time he is 12 we will no longer need external controls because internal controls have been set within him.

Then the Spirit of God will bring conviction to the Word that has been placed within our children. They won't do something now just because Mom and Dad said so. They will do it because God is convicting them and they know it's the right thing to do.

A Parent's Failure
Let's look in the Old Testament at the story of Eli. Here Eli, who was in full-time ministry, had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. God was trying to deal with Eli. Speaking to the prophet Samuel, God says:
In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end. For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.
(1 Sam. 3:12-13)
God was not saying for Eli to go and talk to his sons, but to restrain them. God was telling him, "Eli, you need to make your sons stop doing what they are doing. They are committing vile acts at the temple gates, so do something about it."

We know of three times that God had tried to warn the prophet Samuel. After hearing it from God directly, Samuel in turn shared the message with Eli.

God was telling Eli to restrain his sons, but Eli wouldn't do it.

Finally, it was as if God said, "That's it. I'm not putting up with it anymore." Then the Philistines came against Israel. Scripture says:
And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent: and there was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain.
(1 Sam. 4:10-11)
A runner came and told Eli what had happened; and, as a result, verse 18 tells how Eli fell backward off his stool, broke his neck and died.

That's why we as parents can go to church all day long and have miracles happening in our lives, and still see our children heading straight for hell.

Listen to me carefully: The way our children get saved is by being led to the saving knowledge of Jesus.

Now it's going to take some prayer over them and the sowing of God's Word into their lives, with our living a life for them to model, but they will be saved.

Now you may be saying, "Well, I love the Lord and I've been going to church all my life, so my children will too, and I just know they're going to grow up to serve Him."

But children won't just love God automatically. As the Bible says, we have to train them up in the way they should go (Prov.22:6).

What have you been telling your children about God? Have you been living upright before them?

Children don't just do what we say; they do what we do.

Source: God Knows How To Raise Your Kids, Even If You Don't by Joe McGee.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers

Author Biography

Joe McGee
Web site: Joe McGee Ministries
 
Joe McGee, author, national conference speaker, father, and former school administrator, is the founder and director of Joe McGee Ministries, Inc. and Faith For Families Ministries.
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