To Train Up a Child....

Lately this has been heavy on my heart. The Bible tells us "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, they will not depart from it" Proverbs 22:6. This verse I hold close to my heart, because I want my children to grow up knowing how to make good decisions in their life. I want them to grow up to be respectable, trustworthy adults. I take the job as a parent that the Lord has assigned me to extremely seriously.

It has been upsetting me lately when I see a teenager act out in rebellion and see a parent dismiss their rebellion with the excuse "Oh they're a teenager, they all rebel, they all are going to do that". What? Why would you sell your child so short? Didn't you once have high expections for them? Don't you want them to make good, right, honorable decisions?

We can't just expect our children to know these things and then be suprised when they don't do these things. We have to teach it to them. We have to take it seriously, because if we don't, if we become too lazy to do so, we will lose our children to bad decision after bad decision. Most people wonder why their child goes and makes bad choices and then they chalk it up to rebellion in a way to let themselves off the hook for not seriously teaching these things to their children.

I believe most parents want their children to "treat others as they would want to be treated", "Be careful how we speak, our words hurt others", "Love your neighbor as you love yourself", "Honor your mother and father", and so on. Those are all great values and they all come from the Bible. There are TONS of good moral values that come from the Bible. If you want your child to grow up to be a good, respectable, honorable person...teach them the Bible! I cannot tell you how many ways God has shown us how to teach values to our children through His word. It is a great tool God gives us and most people aren't even using it and wonder what has happened to their once sweet little boy or girl and why aren't they thinking clearly and making bad bad judgement calls. It's our job to teach them, and more importantly it is our job to show them by living it ourselves! We cannot tell our children don't gossip and speak mean things about others and then we go and talk about someone with no so kind words. We can't tell our children to love and honor us, their parents, when we don't do that with each other (our spouses). We have to live by the word AND teach it, it goes hand and hand. It's an ingredient to the recipe and if it you miss an ingredient it will come out bad!

So parents, please, teach your children good morals and good values and live by them. The Lord promises that our children will not depart from it! Oh and one other thing...when the verse says that when he is old he will not depart from it, it doesn't mean like "old" as in an old man or old woman. It's talking about when they hit purbity and go right onto adulthood. So they shouldn't have that rebellious teen years since most children hit purbity right before they become a teenager. Please equip your children with good decision, good choice making, good judgement making skills before they have to learn them themselves....it won't be a good experience for them to learn good decisions and such after long years of bad decision making. Save your child from the pain and heart ache and regret! They will still have that in life, but help them to avoid it as much as possible...protect them because you love them so much!!

Love in Christ,

Kelly

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog! I am excited about writing things that are true, pure, noble, admirable, and lovely just like the Philippians 4:8 verse says! I will post as I feel God is speaking to my heart about issues that are going on in our everydays lives as we walk with Christ. It's not easy in today's world with so much worldly influence even inside of our churches that it will be nice to step outside and breath the fresh air and get back to letting God and His word influence our lives instead of the world.

As I was laying in bed thinking about things of this world that really bothers me, it came to me to start this blog so that I can share the things that bring me joy and the things that bring me saddness as I see it all around in the world today. When I was laying there thinking what I should call this blog... it came to me...or should I say God told me what to call it! I heard the Philippians 4:8 verse in my head and knew that as I was thinking upon these things, that is what I should name the blog! So here it is! I hope you enjoy reading what I have to say and I invite whoever to join in so we can encourage one another to stay in the faith, even when times get tough!

Love, your Sister in Christ,

Kelly