In the last post, we talked about the importance of teaching your children to obey Jeremiah 6:16. There is one last little part to that verse we didn’t discuss though.
“But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’” (Jeremiah 6:16 NIV) Those Israelites were stubborn people! Unfortunately, so are we and our children. Choosing not to heed this verse caused the Jewish people a host of extremely negative consequences.
Had they only asked for God’s advice on how to live their lives or heeded the advice He had already given them, things would have been so different. In fact throughout the history of Israel, there were several times the people got into a world of trouble because they forgot to ask God’s advice before making some important choices.
Have you taught your children to ask for help? Our society has tended from time to time to preach the message of independence either as a liberal free choice, “let me be me” mantra or the conservative, “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” concept. While you don’t want your kids to be frozen waiting for advice from hundreds of people, they shouldn’t be attempting to make choices without help either.
Remember Proverbs 15:22? “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” (NIV) This has become my favorite verse lately. God’s Word is filled with much of the advice your kids may need to make a wise choice. He has also given them a chance to surround themselves with godly people, who can help them remember God’s advice and teach them how to put it into practice in any situation they may encounter.
Teach your kids not just to seek godly advice when faced with choices, but also how to choose the right people to ask for that advice. Remember all of those stories where the kings and others got some really bad advice from false prophets and officials? They didn’t remember to vet the sources of their advice.
Train your children to compare the advice they are given to scripture. Does any of it violate God’s commands? Are the people giving the advice living a life of Christian faith? Has their advice proven godly and correct when followed by others in the past? Is the advice giver a prayer warrior who is also taking their problems to God for guidance?
Teaching your children to heed godly advice is great. They will not be those people at the end of the verse in Jeremiah. Teaching them how to find the advice God would want them to follow is an important skill set Christian parents need to teach their children. It could literally change their lives.