Dads: Day Twenty Five

You need to teach your children, what’s important in life.

As your children are growing up, there are going to be lots of people telling them what they should make a priority out of, and honestly, it can be confusing.   

"Get a good job." "Go to a good school." "Make a lot of money."

That is why Solomon keeps stressing, what is most valuable.

If you read Proverbs 1 through 9 sometimes, it seems like he can’t stop, talking about how good wisdom is.

Proverbs 3:13, “Blessed is the one who finds wisdom...for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold.”

And Proverbs 4:3ff, “When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me, ‘Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments and live. Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will keep you, love her and she will guard you. The beginning of wisdom is this; get wisdom; and whatever you get, get insight.”

And what’s he doing?

He’s doing whatever he can to emphasize to his son how important it is that he make an absolute priority out of getting wisdom in his life.

You need to help your children, see how important wisdom is, and one big way, you do that, is by making a priority out of gaining wisdom in your life. Your children won’t normally value wisdom, if you don’t value wisdom.

I mean, why do you expect them to make sacrifices to learn truth, if you don’t make sacrifices to learn truth?

You shouldn’t be surprised if they are more excited about small little superficial things that don’t matter, if you are more excited about small little superficial things that don’t matter.

So if you want your children to have the right priorities, start by praying God helps you have the right priorities, and start ordering your life, as if your relationship with God and gaining wisdom from God, were really the greatest priority in your life. 

One simple way to do that is by having devotions. Your own devotions. Where you take time, reading or listening to God’s Word, thinking about what it means, and how it applies to your life, and then talking to God, about it individually.

And then, as often as you can as a family, have devotions.

I know, sometimes people are funny about devotions, and they are like, I don’t need to have devotions or whatever, but, I mean, that’s so strange, because, this is not just this duty, this is a privilege, you get to have God’s Word, and so, it seems weird to argue about, whether or not, you have to do that, you should want to do that, and you should want to help your children learn to do that, as well.

We don’t come out of the womb, automatically knowing what to do when we open our Bibles, and so, it might be hard for your children to know what to do, when they are reading their Bibles, and yet they need to, so you need to help them.

And one way you can help them is by having devotions as a family, of course. Just reading a passage, and then talking about that passage, and what you are doing as you do that, is teaching them, how to approach God’s Word.

But you can also help them by spending some money and getting them good books, that they can read in their devotions. And I know that’s a sacrifice, but it’s worth it, and you spend money on things that are a lot less important than truth. We are living in a time, when there are a lot of good children’s books, actually, and if you don’t know about those books, or where to get them, ask one of the leaders here at the church, but as you seek to guide your children, you need to teach them to value what’s valuable.

Because children will naturally think some Barbie movie or Monster movie is more exciting than church, or reading the Bible.

They don’t know what is valuable, which is part of why you are there, so that you can help them, know, that’s actually not true. While, they can enjoy those things maybe, they are not as valuable as God, and they need to learn to value wisdom, by spending time in God’s Word, and in books that help them understand God’s Word better.