6 lessons I want to teach my children

While many abortions occur during the first 9 months of a child's life, MOST abortions occur sometime between the ages of 1 and 18.  We do not have to abandon our children to abort them, we just need to be distracted, disconnected, busy and preoccupied.

Please do not misunderstand what I am saying.  I am not an advocate of being so child centered that our entire lives revolve around them.  Hear it clearly, children make for bad gods.  We dare not worship them, but we do need to nurture them.

Many people have children.  Wise people raise them.  

Raising them means you are teaching them.  You are imparting wisdom to them.  Of the many lessons they must digest, these six make up the main course.

#1 To appreciate God's discipline.

Many people "believe" in God.  Few people actually know Him and respond to His overtures in their lives.  I want to teach my children how to see God's hand at work around them so that they can respond to Him and experience Him.  And yes, even to appreciate His discipline.  I want them to have a softness towards God so that they are pliable and responsive to His working in them.  

#2 To love wisdom and pursue it.

Think about it, if they love wisdom and pursue wisdom, they will always have a means for making right choices in life.  My pursuit of wisdom determines their pursuit of wisdom.  Have my children "caught" me reading God's Word?  Have I been caught in the act of pursuing wisdom?  If so, they will follow my example.

#3 To keep good company.

Success is not only about what you know, its who you hang out with.  Proverbs 13:20 says, "He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm."  I want to teach my children how to choose wise friends.  

#4 To protect their heart.

Giving their heart away to anyone other than Jesus is a set up for severe disappointment.  There is a difference between trusting others and entrusting myself to others.  Depending on who they are, we trust others with our time, things, secrets, money, etc.  But only God is big enough to handle my soul/heart.  Teach your children who they can trust to protect them from a broken heart.

#5 Wise financial management.

Our nation has driven up a $17 trillion debt.  It's got to stop.  Let's begin by teaching our children how to save their money and spend it wisely.  Teach them to fear the credit card, teach them to abhor debt.  Teach them how to save up for something that they want so they can pay cash for it.  Teach them how to live on little, for only then will they be able to live on more.  

#6 To remain sexually pure.

Sex is not for people who love one another.  Sex is for marriage.  Today's "hook up culture" is abhorrent.  Our bodies are connected to our souls.  Give our body away enough times to enough people and we lose our soul.  I want to teach my children how to be faithful, monogamous, married adults.  I want to teach them how to exercise self-control over their urges.  If they learn self-control now, it will enable them to be faithful to their spouse someday.  

Six HUGE lessons to help my children become wise adults.  The world needs more wise people.  People are not born wise, it has to be cultivated.  As a Dad, it is my delight to see my children, who are young adults, making wise choices.  God is so very good!