To Whom Shall We Go?

I couldn't resist the opportunity for a cheeky title... Piper has an excellent post on a very specific, and perplexing, question about parenting. I have wondered about it many times. The question he sets out to answer is "Why should parents require submissive behaviors of children when they may be unregenerate rebels at heart?". Here are his three main points: 1) For children, external, unspiritual conformity to God’s commanded patterns of behavior is better than external, unspiritual non-conformity to those patterns of behavior. 2) Requiring obedience from children in conformity with God’s will confronts them with the meaning of sin in relation to God, the nature of their own depravity, and their need for inner transformation by the power of grace through the gospel of Christ. 3) The marks of devotion, civility, and manners (“please,” “thank you,” and good eye contact) are habits that, God willing, are filled later with grace and become more helpful ways of blessing o...

Relationships, not things, are what bring satisfaction in life. This is true even for toddlers. This is the basic argument of Jay Younts over at the Shepherd's Press blog . They publish helpful books such as Shepherding a Child's Heart. I've not read others from this publisher, but I have little doubt about their usefulness. Especially Instructing a Child's Heart . I'm sure it is excellent So how then do you help the toddler to see that relationships matter more than things, especially when your ultimate aim is bring them into the primary relationship they were created for: a relationship totally dependent on their God and Maker? Even though the spiritual condition of your toddler is uncertain, you can bring the certainty and stability of your own relationship with Christ to your toddler. This is an important application of Deuteronomy 6:7 that is often missed. God wants you to talk about him with all of your children, even-- and perhaps especially--with your...