Geoffrey R. Kirkland
Christ Fellowship Bible Church (St Louis, MO)
The goal of parenting is to glorify God by faithfully obeying the Lord and teaching the children divine Truth. This further fleshes out with more reasons God has given parents to children.
First, parents must diligently instruct the children in the word of God. This should be regular, daily, fervent, passionate, gentle, warm, and age-appropriate. Second, parents must seek to exemplify holiness so the children can see Godliness enfleshed. As parents sin, they should clearly and humbly confess it, ask for forgiveness and grant forgiveness lavishly and immediately. Additionally, parents must strive to prepare their children to be good citizens in society by being submissive to authority, hard-working, respectful, and dutiful and law-abiding. Fourthly, parents must fervently evangelize the children from the earliest of ages so that the children will constantly hear of a glorious God who is holy, just, righteous and true. Parents must instill the reality of sin — and indwelling sin — and call children to see their sin rightly and turn from it decisively and run to Christ for deliverance and grace! Next, parents must provide for and protect the children from dangers in this world. Parents must guard the children from the dangers of this world-system that violently opposes God and His Word. Children must learn the duty of gratitude and the dangers of grumbling. Furthermore, God has given parents to children to discipline them diligently when sin is committed. Parents must vigilantly fight against sin, carefully probe the heart, patiently expose the sin and show its heinousness before God, and tenderly and urgently summon the child to run to Christ alone for salvation from the penalty of sin.
The goal of parenting, then, is to faithfully discharge the duties that God has given in His Word. With this said, the goal of parenting is not ultimately the salvation of the children. Every parent desires the children to be saved by grace but no parent has the ability to save his children’s souls. Faithful parenting is not dependent on the spiritual state of the children. May it be that faithful parents delight in and rejoice in the mercies of God in saving their children as they grow older, but even if the children do not profess faith and walk in holiness, that does not mean that the parents have failed in their obligations. The goal of parenting is always the glory of God and the obedience to His Word. This is also true in the realm of parenting.
This is part 1 of a multi-part series on parenting.
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