In Top Tip for Raising a Mature, Godly Child, I promised to share tips for how to disciple your child. A well discipled child has a much better chance of making more mature, godly choices. As we saw when Jesus discipled his Apostles, there were some mis-steps along the way. One (Judas) even decided to reject everything Jesus had tried to teach him.
There are no guarantees following these tips will make your children perfect or even that they will consistently make godly, mature decisions. Some mis-steps are likely, in part because of their lack of life experience. That is part of the discipling process – teaching, demonstrating and then giving opportunities for guided practice. Guided practice gives your kids a safe place to make those mistakes. A place where a Christian adult is standing by to mentor or offer help when needed. Practice that allows for feedback and correction.
Parents who don’t disciple their kids often find their children are involved in real life scenarios without that extra godly support. Suddenly, these young people are with peers and attempting to make potentially life-changing if not eternity changing decisions without having been prepared. Honestly, it’s surprising more kids and teens don’t end up in over their heads, making poor choices.
So how do you disciple your kids? There are a lot of things you can do, but if you follow the model Jesus set with his Apostles, you will be making a good start.
John Quincy Adams is a little known American President. Other than being the son of President John Adams, most of us know nothing about him. It’s a shame, because I think the Adam’s knew the secret to raising a mature son. (I can’t speak to how godly he was as historians tend to have little interest in such matters.) Don’t believe me?
When our daughter was a toddler, people were constantly amazed she never pitched a fit. It wasn’t because she was spoiled or because she was too terrified of us to want to get her way. She could be as stubborn as any toddler. She just never had a full tantrum. Finally, one of my friends with older children, told me she had figured out my secret. (Mind you I didn’t know at that point I had one!) “You are interacting with your child on a level where you are catching her before she crosses that line into tantrum mode.”
It happened again today. The morning shows on television were trumpeting the results of some new study “proving” the quality of the time spent with children is more important than the quantity of time. These sorts of reports and studies circulate periodically, reassuring over scheduled, working parents their children will be “just fine” with the few minutes of time a day most spend with them.