Cultivating Godly Children

My husband printed this article by John MacArthur last night for us to read and I thought it was worth sharing. Those of us who are parents are striving to raise our children to be godly...for the purpose of bringing glory to God. We desire, first of all, for them to have a heart change that can only come about from God's intervention in their lives. We desire for them to know God and love Him with all of their hearts. As parents we have an unspeakable challenge in sharing the gospel with our children all the time...with wisdom and love, as we encourage, discipline, teach, guide, and have fun together. I thought this part of the article was good as a father speaks to how he would do things differently if he could. Let's intentionally strive to be the parents God has planned for us to be and ask the Lord for His grace to accomplish it.

One wise father said, "My family's all grown and the kids are all gone. But if I had it to do all over again, this is what I would do: I would love my wife more in front of my children. I would laugh with my children more--at our mistakes and our joys. I would listen more, even to the littlest child. I would be more honest about my own weaknesses, never pretending perfection. I would pray differently for my family; instead of focusing on them, I'd focus on me. I would do more things together with my children. I would encourage them more and bestow more praise. I would pay more attention to little things, like deeds and words of thoughtfulness. And then, finally, if I had to do it all over again, I would share God more intimately with my family; every ordinary thing that happened in every ordinary day I would use to direct them to God."