sermon_14

Preparing Your Child to Walk Outside


While we must prepare our children physically, we are also called to be concerned with their total well being.. Being concerned with their well being means agreeing to the fact that they are not just mere bodies. They are beings created by God in His image just like us.

If we are to be successful in helping them walk in the world outside, let us begin by agreeing to a few things.

1. God is sovereign. He gave you your children. He may have given you your children in less than normal means, but congratulations you brought your children out alive. You did not terminate them before they came out of the womb. God gave you your children, every child you have as act of His grace. (Gen. 4.1, 25)
2. God sees your children as an heritage. We have a beautiful word for it “PAMANA”, an inheritance. “They are a reward from Him, like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth.”( Ps. 127. 3-5)
3. God desires your children to go unto Him. We have a God Who loves children so much that there is no record that He ever drove them away by being grumpy. He instead said, “ Let the little children come unto me.”(Mt.19. 14)

What are we going to do then?

1. We must Direct them in the path of life. Show them where (Joshua 24.15) If we don’t direct them we already have directed them to the path of death. More battles, it has been said , have been lost by default.
2. We must Determine their purpose in life. (Deut. 6. 5 – 9) Determining means like putting our hands on the child and holding him that He may walk in the path of life.
3. We must Develop their faith in life. Fathers, do not exasperate your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.


Practical Ways of Preparing them to Walk Outside

1. Build a relationship with your children. Build it on God and His Word. And by the way, relationships you make wont have a meaning when you don’t have a relationship with the ONE who gives you life’s meaning.
2. It is never too late to LOVE. Show it with a warm bear hug.
3. Laugh with them. It makes all of us at ease with ourselves.
4. Say sorry when you are wrong. Saying sorry when you are wrong does not make you less human..

5. KEEP YOUR PROMISES. Promises were never made to be broken. Better make a few that can be done than a lot that are better undone..
6. When your children fail, help them stand. Remember you were once a child who also failed, and you still get to fail every so often.
7. TIME, TIME, TIME. There is no substitute to spending TIME with them.
8. CHECK YOUR HEART OUT. DO YOU REALLY LOVE THEM? If you love them , THEN SEEK HIM. HE must be in your life.