“A Children’s Cheerleader” is August 20’s morning entry from Dr. David Jeremiah’s ‘Turning Points with God: 365 Daily Devotions’.
"These words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children." Deuteronomy 6:6-7
What expectant parents don’t wrangle over baby names, discuss nursery decor, haggle over finances, and prognosticate about what the newborn will look like? Whose eyes will she have, Mom’s or Dad’s? Whose chin? And will the little one be spared Grandpa’s rather protruding proboscis (large nose, to put it nicely)?
All parents want the best for their children. They want them to grow up healthy, happy, and strong. More than anything, perhaps, Christian parents want their children to grow up to love and serve the Lord. And that requires deliberate, intentional moral schooling.
That training begins in the home. But it involves more than mere instruction in the faith. It means encouraging your children when they do right and when they succeed, and patting them on the back for giving their best effort. Raising a godly, happy child in the negative world in which we live today requires open and honest conversations, laughter, and perhaps most important of all, modeling what a godly marriage looks like with a mommy and daddy who love each other and readily forgive each other’s failings.
It is a truism that children learn more by our actions than by our words, but it has never been truer than it is today.
To end, a quote from Josh Billings, “The best way to train up a child the way he should go is to travel that road occasionally yourself.”
