Page 99 - Family Life Student Textbook

also cause them to respect you more. They will learn that your faith and relationship with God is very real.
We want to help them know their faith if very real and valuable before they ever leave the home.

Share your spiritual faliures as well as successes so they can learn from them.

Joel 1:2–4 “Hear this, you elders; listen, all who live in the
land. Has anything like this ever happened in your
days or in the days of your ancestors? Tell it to your
children, and let your children tell it to their children,
and their children to the next generation. What the
locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten;
what the great locusts have left the young locusts
have eaten; what the young locusts have left other
locusts have eaten.”

God commands the leaders of Israel to communicate to their
children about the consequences of their sin so that it would help
the next generation learn from these mistakes and prevent a
repeat offense.

Domonstrate your priorities. Don’t just talk about the correct
priorities but let your children observe you keeping the right priorities. Children end up doing what they saw
you do, rather than what they heard you say. For instance, if church attendence and fellowship with other
believers is sporadic in your life, your children will most likely stop attending church entirely when they
leave your home. If, on the other hand, you minister to other people together as a family, your children will
most likely follow that example in their own lives.

Demonstrate good Christian habits. Study God’s Word regularly. Memorize scripture. Discuss openly and
apply it. Spend time with God in prayer. Confess sin regularly. Apologize to others. Forgive each other.
Minister to others.

Talk about and counter the evil philosophies of the world. Parents are in a war with Satan and the world for
the hearts of their children. God will help you if you take this battle seriously. Expose the lies and deciption
of the world’s philosophies. Teach your children very early in their lives that their friends are not always
right about things. Demonstrate your willingness to answer any question your children might have. Always
tell them the truth. Allow them to interupt you with their questions and concerns. Show them that you
really care.

Show them how to filter everything through a Biblical grid of truth. When they hear something or read
something, help them figure out what that message was trying to teach. Then show them how to contrast
that with the truth of God’s Word.

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