"Train up a child in the way he should go: and
when he is old, he will not depart from
it." Proverbs 22:6
I found this wonderful list compiled by Amber Gilreath that I wanted
to share with mothers, grandmothers, expectant mothers, and future mothers whose hearts
desire is to raise faithful children in the Lord. I know I’m going to use this list when the
time comes!
1. Faithfully attend all worship services (Heb 10:24-25). Do not just
be a Sunday morning Christian.
2. Do not let worldly, material things be more important than any
worship service. (Ex. Do not miss a service on Wednesday night for football
practice.) This shows your child nothing is more important than God—not even
being the best ball player (Gina Hamm).
3. Miss birthday parties and practices even for gospel meetings on
Tuesday and Thursday nights. This is about priorities (Karen Teague).
4. Take time to find a church in the planning of your vacation. This
shows your child how important God is even on vacation.
5. Have a daily devotional, even if it is just 15 minutes before or
after dinner. This is a small amount of time that has a large impact on your
children.
6. When your child is old enough, force personal Bible study time
outside of school on your child. If children are left to decide what to do in
their free time, they will never study the Bible on their own (Wayne Jackson).
7. Eat dinner as a family and pray to God, letting Him know how
thankful you are for the food and other blessings.
8. Pray daily with your child outside of just mealtime.
9. Emphasize to your child the importance of marrying a Christian
(Kelley Dees).
10. Pray for your child’s future spouse in front of your child (that
he or she is being raised by faithful parents and will one day help your
son/daughter get to heaven) (Cindy Colley).
11. Attend church events outside of worship services.
12. Hang around other faithful Christians. They will be good
influences for your children.
13. Reach out to the elderly with your child. Attend nursing home
singings and visit the widows. (Diane Tucker)
14. Make your child hug an elderly person at every service (Cindy
Colley).
15. Send your child to a church camp every summer.
16. When you pray out loud with your child, pray for the child by
name.
17. Be open with your child. Communicate often and about everything.
18. Be a good listener for your child.
19. Talk about God several times per day in normal conversations with
your child. Ex."The bible says we
are to take care and visit the older people. Let's take Mrs. Sewell some
cookies" *quote scripture (Kelli Sewell)
20. Teach your children that the only time we use God’s name is when
we are praying (and always use scripture to support things). If they ever say
OMG, respond with, “Oh, I see you want to pray!” (Kelli Sewell)
21. Having a father for your children who is also a faithful Christian
will always be a better situation for the child. The child looks at BOTH
parents examples (Kelley Dees).
22. Expose your children to other faithful Christians who are their
age. Peers have a great impact on children all their lives (Allison Redd).
23. Love your children. Tuck them in before they go to bed and always
kiss them good night (Gina Hamm).
24. Be consistent with your Christianity. Don’t act differently
outside of services (Karen Teague).
25. Be a mean mom. Require responsibility and honesty from your
children and know where they are. Your children will respect you for it (Karen
Teague).
26. Always give reasons for commands. “Because I said so” does not
teach your child anything (Karen Teague).
27. Teach your children to be thankful. Make them say “thank you” for
things often.
28. Do not be a worrier (Matt 6:25-34, Gal 5:22-23). This is God’s way
and will surely provide the best results when dealing with our children (Karen
Teague).
29. Live consciously. If we speed when we're late, or make other
"allowances" our children see it and decide there are times when
"breaking the rules" is ok (Karen Teague).
30. Have family night each week with your kids, even when they get to
be teenagers. Go out to eat or to the movies or rent a movie or play board
games.
31. Have fun being a Christian and show your kids that avoiding sin
does not mean avoiding fun.
32. Let your children make mistakes. It is difficult to do, but when
they are old enough they have to make their own decisions and learn from them.
( I don't mean something life or soul threatening, of course.) Don't run around
fixing their problems or making everything ok for them. Our kids need some
experience with making mistakes before they leave the nest (Karen Teague).
33. Teach them to love God and that God loves us. Do not make God look
like just a being who has a bunch of rules for us. God’s rules are similar to
parents’ rules: He gives them to us because He loves us (Amy Clevenger).
34. Teach your children to give (2 Cor 9:7). Let your children give in
the offering at church services a portion of their own money.
35. Answer your children’s questions. Do not make them feel that
questions are a bother. This keeps communication open between you and them and
will encourage them to ask when they get to the important questions in life
(Amy Clevenger).
36. Be consistent with discipline. Don’t let breaking the rules slide
in any situation. This teaches children to respect authority (Amy and Josh
Clevenger).
37. Let your child clearly know and understand what the consequences
for disobedience are.
38. Do not threaten unless you are going to follow through with the
action. If you say you are going to spank them if they do that again, and you
don’t do it, they will learn not to take you seriously.
39. Teach your children about appropriate clothing from a young age.
That way, he or she will not miss the fact that she has to quit being a
cheerleader at age 10 because the skirts are too short all of the sudden (Amy
Clevenger).
40. Don’t make exceptions to the rules of clothing outside of
services. If they couldn’t wear it to church functions, they shouldn’t be
allowed to wear it to Wal-Mart (Stacey Rogers).
41. Let them know from a young age that Christians are different, and
oftentimes the world will not agree or like them for it. That way when they get
to high school, they will know in advance they are going to be resisting things
that might be popular because we want to follow God rather than evil (Exodus
23:2) (Amy Clevenger).
42. Prepare your children for the temptations they will face in high
school and college by talking to them about things they will be tempted to do
and discussing options of the actions they can take to resist sinning.
43. Let your children clean out their closets once per year to pick
out some toys they can give to needy children (Amy Clevenger).
44. Make great efforts to cut bad language out of movies at home
(Cindy Colley).
45. If the movie has language in the theatres, wait until the movie
comes out on DVD/Blue-Ray. This will show your children we do not make
exceptions to the rules (Cindy Colley).
46. Incorporate bible study into the children’s daily routine. Make
this as important as getting homework done after school. Make learning the
Bible as important as any other subject.
47. Teach your children that Christianity is a way of life. Talk
about the commands of God all the time. “And
these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou
shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou
sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest
down, and when thou risest up.” (Deut 6:6-7)
48. Never fight in front of your children. If you do, work it out in
front of your children and kiss and make up (Diane Webster).
49. Educate through example. Do not tell your child not to do
something against God’s Word and then do it yourself.
50. Refrain from complaining in front of your children. This
encourages them to complain (Cindy Colley).
51. Post Bible verses in your children’s room and around the house.
52. When your child asks you a question, take out the Bible whenever
you can to find the answer. This shows them where the answers to life’s
questions come from.
53. Do not let cleaning, work, etc. be more important than giving your
children attention. There will always be housework to do, but your children
will not be children forever.
54. Play on the floor with your children. Join in on tea parties and
board games.
55. Ask other Christian moms for advice.
56. Homeschool if you can. This allows you to incorporate the most
Bible into your child’s curriculum. Make sure if you do this that your children
have plenty of friends at church or in the co-op to learn critical socialization
skills.
57. If you public school, be as involved as possible. A child left
to himself bringeth his mother shame (Prov 29:15).
58. If you can afford to live on your husband’s income, do not send
your child to day-care, even if this means sacrificing nice vehicles and houses
for mediocre ones. (Having a brand new house and two brand new cars is not as
important as the impact and time you will get to spend with your children as
toddlers) (Luke 12:15).
59. Monitor your children’s television viewing. This seems obvious,
but apparently this is something someone felt was necessary to be listed here.
Do not let teenagers watch trashy networks like MTV.
60. Know that serving God first and raising your children to avoid
sinful entertainment and activities can give you the reputation of being the
prude, strict mom, and don’t let this get you down. Know that serving God is
more important than what the world thinks.
61. If you get burnt out, do not be afraid to take the day off. Ask
your mom or your husband to keep the children while you get away every now and
then.
62. Expose your children to a soup kitchen every now and them, and let
them serve the hungry. This will help them appreciate all the food and
blessings they enjoy on a daily basis.
63. Give your child chores. Even if they are just required to make
their bed each morning or feed the dog, this makes them more responsible.
64. Teach your child that we submit to authority and our authority to
God comes first.
65. Treat your husband with respect (Eph 5:33), especially in front of
your children. When children learn that their dad is the authority over the
wife (Eph 5:22-23, 1 Pet 3:6), the way the wife treats the husband teaches the
children how to treat authority. This teaches your girls to love and respect
their husbands through example!
66. Get excited and teach your children to get excited when their
father comes home from work.
67. Husbands, love your wives and treat them with honor as commanded
in God’s Word, not disrespect just because you have final authority (Eph 5:25,
1 Pet 3:7). Teach your boys to love their wives through example!
68. Husbands, do not allow the children to talk back to you or their
mothers.
69. Never let your children come between you and your husband. This
relationship is second only to your relationship to God. I have spoken with
many wives who think children should not sleep in the bed with parents because
this comes between the parents and encourages the children to fear sleeping by
themselves.
70. Be clear about the rules. Be united with your husband in
disciplining your children. Do not disagree with your husband about discipline
in front of your children.
71. Do not talk badly about your spouse to your children or to other
people.
72. Teach your children the importance of sharing the Bible with
others. Study with others and take your children to these Bible studies.
73. Spank your children when they disobey or are disrespectful, not
when they make mistakes or do not already know the rule (Cindy Colley).
74. Discuss Bible lessons with children and ask them what we can do in
our daily lives to apply some of the lessons.
75. Take vacations to spiritual retreats and call this vacation.
76. Have spiritual books that teach reliable, fundamental truths from
the Bible on the bookshelf at home (Wayne Jackson).
77. Learn about the theory of evolution. Teach your children the truth
about this theory and why there IS a God who created the Earth the way it is
described in Genesis 1. Use books and articles from www.apologeticspress.org if you are unfamiliar with how to refute this theory. Do not let
your children leave home without this information: the world will use this to
convince them that there is no God.
78. Have a Bible in every room.
79. Talk to your children about sex. Include lots of scripture. There
is no such thing as safe sex outside of marriage, and sex before marriage is
sin and hurts God (Gal 5:19-21). They are going to learn about sex from the
world if you do not talk to them about this at the appropriate time/age.
80. If you think you do not have time for incorporating family time or
Bible devotional time into your routine, get rid of the television.
81. Teach your children to sacrifice “fun time” for things that please
God, like visiting the elderly, youth devotionals, studying the Bible, being
hospitable, etc. Life is not all about just what seems fun to us or pursuing
selfish desires.
82. Take heed to the warning in 1 Cor 15:33: Worldy friends, media,
magazines, music, newspapers, etc, can have a negative effect on the good
morals Christian parents are instilling in their children.
83. Children need correction (Prov 13:24, 19:18). Do not expect to be
your child’s best friend in the young years. You are there to be the parent.
They will love you for training them properly.
84. Give clear expectations for your children to follow. Do not be
vague.
85. Do not count aloud and wait for your child to obey (“1…2…2.5…”).
When a parent says to do something, the child should obey right then, not
whenever they feel like it. (Cindy Colley)
86. “Punishment is effective when it reinforces one’s love and concern
for the child. It is a must for the parents to be controlled and disciplined
themselves [when correcting children]. Otherwise, it may appear to children
that they are the target of an adult temper-tantrum. Such a parent needs to
repent.” (Wayne Jackson).
87. Make sure your children know that through correction, you love
them and are only trying to help them get to heaven.
88. Pray for the wisdom to be a good parent.
89. Teach your children the benefits of trusting in the Lord (no
regrets, peace added to you: Prov 3:2-3, avoid consequences of sin, etc) (Wayne
Jackson).
90. Make your children memorize scripture.
91. Sing Bible songs together in the house, in the car, and with
others outside of services.
92. When your children are old enough, let them write notes to members
who need encouragement for any reason.
93. Do not allow your children to whine ever. This behavior should be
punished (Cindy Colley).
94. Do not chase your children. If you tell your child to come, and he
or she runs the other way, chase him, spank him, and explain that disobedience
is wrong (Cindy Colley).
95. Tell your child you love them often. Touch them often.
96. Teach your girls to love their husbands, their children, to be
discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, and obedient to their husbands (Titus
2:3-5).
97. Teach young men the importance of providing for their families (1
Tim 5:8).
98. Teach your daughters to cook. Let them help you fix supper for the
family. This teaches them to serve their families and allows you to spend extra
mother/daughter time with them.
99. Do not teach your children to be worldy. Do not let them think
they must have fancy brands of shoes and clothing, etc, or let them make fun of
others for the clothing they wear (James 2:1-5).
100. Make heaven sound as
exciting to your children as Disney World. Give them something to look forward
to and work toward as young Christians (Kristi Griffin).
101. Final
Advice: “Successful child-rearing, according to the Bible, is not a role of the
dice”. We must commit ourselves to give our children lots of time, repetitious instruction,
constant love and affection, and a consistent Christian example to raise
children who are faithful to God (Prov 3:5-6) (Wayne Jackson).
