Children Are Always Watching
4 Ways the Bible Helps Us Raise Children
Raising kids is hard (even as a grandparent). We’re blessed that the Bible can help.
Bob Lonac 
Our purpose is to influence history, not merely observe it.
How do we influence history in everyday life? By trying to be parents who follow Jesus and live His way.
Kathleen and I have learned that passing down our faith in Christ is a great joy and challenge. It is among the most important jobs we have on this earth.
Don’t be mistaken; if you think this means lecturing, preaching, or making up rules for your children to behave like you want them to, there is more to it than that.
Growing up, I heard, “Do what you are told, not what I do!” That is easy to say as a parent. But children keep their eyes open to who we are and what we do, regardless of what we say.
We’ve tried to love and raise our children to prepare them to know Jesus. But, like every Christian parent, we’ve definitely had days we succeeded, and days we’ve failed.
Parenting is like a marathon, except it never really ends. And like other aspects of life, we find joy, rejuvenation – and the ability to keep going – as we love and serve through Christ.
4 Biblical Ways to Support Our Kids’ Needs
Here are four needs all kids have, and how we can find encouragement from the Bible as parents to help fulfill them.
1. Security
Safety from harm, a safe place to live, and enough food to eat. This is pretty straightforward, but providing these things for our children takes hard work and dedication. Very few of us are born with a silver spoon in our mouths. My dad was a carpenter and was proud of it. I started working on jobs with him at 16 years old. I learned to work hard by watching my dad. We always had a roof over our heads and food on the table.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
2. Moral Guidance
This may be the most controversial need in our world today. You have two choices: make up your own truths, or go with revelation from God in the Holy Bible. Your own values and morals are what they will pick up from watching you do life. It is caught, not taught.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
3. Self-Acceptance and Affirmation
There is only one true path to self-acceptance and affirmation. That is accepting the unconditional love of God in Jesus Christ. We cannot force this on our children. If you accept the love God truly has for you, you will become the king of affirmation for your own children and the others around you.
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.
4. Purpose
We find our purpose by getting to know God and ourselves and by trial and error.
Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.
Live your passion. I wrote about passion last month.
Develop your own character. Be who you want them to be. That process lasts a lifetime. Build relationships with your children by sharing with them who you are and what you care about — what your struggles are, as well as your joys. Let them get to know you as well as seek to know them.
Become the person you were meant to be and spend time making memories with your own children. Go make it happen, friends.
