INTRODUCTION – We get what we expect in life. “I was a terrible student, so I can’t really expect my children to be any different.” Our Society and American culture has greatly lowered the bar or standard of parenting, and the consequences of that have been devastating.
When the Duke of Windsor was asked what impressed him most in America, he replied, “the way American parents obey their children.”
So the following outline is our attempt to raise the Biblical standard of what our hands on parenting by the power of the Holy Spirit should look like in the lives and character of our children.
I. Our Children should be wise/full of wisdom. Prov. 10:1 “A wise son makes a father glad, but a foolish son is a grief to his mother.”
Prov. 15:20 “A wise son makes a father glad; but a foolish man despises his mother.”
Prov. 23:24 “The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, and he who sires a wise son will be glad in him.”
Prov. 29:3 “A man who loves wisdom makes his father glad…”
Luke 2:52 “And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”
II. Our Children should receive and heed our instruction. Prov. 1:7,8 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Hear, my son, your father’s instruction And do not forsake your mother’s teaching.”
Prov. 4:1,21 “Hear, O sons, the instruction of a father, and give attention that you may gain understanding…. Do not let them depart from your sight; Keep them in the midst of your heart.”
Prov. 4:10-13 “Hear my son and accept my sayings…”
Prov. 5:7-23 (consequences of not doing so)
Prov. 23:22,23 “Listen to your father who begot you and do not despise your mother when she is old. Buy truth and do not sell it, Get wisdom and instruction and understanding.”
III. Our Children should receive and heed our discipline and correction.
Prov. 5:12 “And you say, “How I have hated instruction and my heart spurned reproof.”
Prov. 6:20-23 “My son observe the commandment of your father….reproofs for discipline are the way of life.”
Prov. 13:1 “A wise son accepts his father’s discipline, But a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.”
Prov. 15:5 “A fool rejects his father’s discipline But he who regards reproof is sensible.”
Prov. 15:10 “Grievous punishment is for him who forsakes the way, He who hates reproof will die.”
IV. Our Children should honor and respect their mother and father. Ex. 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.”
Deut. 5:16 “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged…”
Prov. 15:20 “A wise son makes a father glad, But a foolish man despises his mother.”
Prov. 20:20 “He who curses his father or his mother his lamp will go out in times of darkness.”
Prov. 30:17 “The eye that mocks a father and scorns a mother, The ravens of the valley will pick it out, And the young eagles will eat it.”
Prov. 31:28 “Her children rise up and bless her; ….”
Matt. 15:4, “For God said, ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,’ and, ‘HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHE IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.’ (The world’s influence in vs. 5,6)
Eph. 6:2 “HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER (which is the first commandment with a promise), SO THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH YOU, AND THAT YOU MAY LIVE LONG ON THE EARTH.”
V. Our Children should obey our commands in everything. Eph. 6:1 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.”
Col. 3:20 “Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord.”
VI. Our Children should be responsive to the Lord – receiving and heeding the discipline and reproof of the Lord. Psalm 22:9,10 “Yet You are He who brought me forth from the womb; You made me trust when upon my mother’s breasts. Upon You I was cast from birth; You have been my God from my mother’s womb.”
Matt. 19:14 “But Jesus said, “Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
Luke 1:15 “For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb.”
Luke 1:80 “And the child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel.”
Prov. 3:11,12 “My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord Or loathe His reproof, For whom the Lord loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.”
CONCLUSION –