July 21, 2019

Parental Duty

Tell your children about it in the years to come, and let your children tell their children. Pass the story down from generation to generation

(Joel 1:3 NLT).

By God’s grace, a living testimony for truth is always to be kept alive in our families. The beloved of the Lord are to hand down their witness for the gospel to their children, and these again to their next generation. This is our first duty as parents; we are to begin at home. The unsaved are to be sought by all means, and the highways and hedges are to be searched; but home has a prior claim, and woe unto those who reverse the order of the Lord’s arrangements.

To teach our children is a personal duty; we cannot delegate it to Sunday School Teachers, or other friendly aids; these can assist us, but cannot deliver us from the sacred obligation; proxies and sponsors are wicked devices in this case. Mothers and fathers must, like Abraham, command their households in the fear of God, and talk with their children concerning the wondrous works of the Most High.

Parental teaching is a natural duty — who is more fit to look to the child’s well‑being as those who are the authors of his actual being? To neglect the instruction of our children is worse than abusive. Family religion is necessary for the nation, for the family itself, and for the church of God. By a thousand plots false doctrines are covertly advancing in our land, and one of the most effectual means for resisting its inroads is left almost neglected, namely, the instruction of children in the faith of Jesus Christ. I would that parents would awaken to a sense of the importance of this matter.

It is a pleasant duty to talk of Jesus to our sons and daughters, and the more so because it has often proved to be an effective endeavor, for God has saved the children through the parents’ prayers and admonitions.

 Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it

(Proverbs 22:6 NLT).