THE GOSPEL FAITH MISSION INTERNATIONAL (GOFAMINT)
LESSON 9, 28/4/2019
PARENTING GODLY CHILDREN
Suggested Hymns: G.H.B. 16, 244
Devotional Reading: Jer. 35:1-19
Topic for Adults: Train Your Children To Give You Rest
Topic for Youths: Be Obedient To Godly Instructions
Topic for Intermediates: Shun bad Company
Lesson Scriptures: Matt. 7:24-27, James 1:22-25, 1 Cor. 11:1, Deut. 6:4-9, Eph. 6:1-4; Lam.
2:19, Prov. 29:17, 22:6
MEMORY VERSE: “Train up your child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6) NKJV
also harm himself or herself. Sometimes, words of reproof alone are enough, at other times
the Bible says “that children can be corrected during their formative years with rod. However,
Christians should note that there are countries that see this as ‘child abuse’ and have
legislated against it. Parents should not take the law into their hands. They should continue
to intercede for their children and feed them with the word of God.
Point of Emphasis: Untrained children bring shame to their parents and harm to themselves.
Prayer Point: Father, give me wisdom to bring up my children in the way of the Lord.
Reading the Bible through in a Year: Lam. 1-3
always walk according to the word of God before you can raise godly children. Your
intimate relationship with God will enhance you to influence to your children to obey God.
David knew through painful experience and discipline that for someone to be successful in
life, the person must walk in the way of the Lord. In view of this, he instructed Solomon to
live in perfect obedience to God, though Solomon failed to heed the godly admonition given
him. This resulted to God’s judgment on him (1 Kgs. 11:1-13). Christian parents must not
fail in their responsibility to admonish their children with godly messages. The children too
must not refuse to walk in the godly advice given him.
Point of Emphasis: Christian parents should not fail to pass godly instructions to their children. The children must take to their parent’s advice.
Prayer Point: Help me Holy Spirit to perform the duty to guide my children right. Help the children to adhere to godly instructions.
Reading the Bible through in a Year: Lam. 4- Ezek. 1
reasons among others. First, all children are born sinners because of the fall of man (Rom.
3:23). Unless they are born-again, they will manifest the works of the flesh. Second, children
generally have self-will they want to exhibit. Unless their self-will is broken and made
submissive to the will of God, they will not be godly (Gal. 5:19-21). Third there are many
negative influences out there through; peers; mass media, and so on, therefore, parents must
lovingly, prayerfully, patiently and diligently train their children with the word of God and modeling.
Point of Emphasis: Train your children by example.
Prayer point: Give me the wisdom, patience and anointing to train my children. Also remove every attitude that is anti-Christian from my family in Jesus’ name.
Reading the Bible through in a Year: Ezek. 2-4
personal Lord and Saviour. It is a costly assumption to believe that the children are saved
because they have been going to church with you since they were born or they can recite
memory verses or they have joined the choir and the Sunday school work force. They can
be in any of the above but outside Christ! The decision to receive Christ and to become a
new creature must be taken by each person no matter who the parents are in the church.
Therefore, preach the gospel to your children in the power of the Holy Ghost, Give them
the opportunity to willingly receive Christ.
Point of Emphasis: It is your responsibility to lead your children to Christ.
Prayer Point: Heavenly Father, save all members of my family including my biological children and all those who live in my home in Jesus’ name.
Reading the Bible through in a Year: Ezek. 5-7
sinful T.V programmes, worldly dressing and fashion. These have influenced many children
into drug addiction, sexual immorality, armed robbery, kidnapping, rape, ritual killing,
cultism, prostitution and so on. Therefore, guide, enlighten and warn your children against
bad companionship. Allow your children to bring their friends to the house so that you can
know them. Note that many children who come from Christian homes have been
influenced badly in the school and in the society. Periodically, check the messages on their phones.
Point of Emphasis: Do not be deceived, evil company corrupts good habits (I Cor. 15:33).
Prayer Point: Father, separate my children from bad friends.
Reading the Bible through in a Year: Ezek. 8-10
Make adequate provision for your family as God helps you. Provide food, clothing, shelter
and education for your children. Many children have been lured with money into
prostitution, armed robbery, kidnapping, rape because of the failure of the parents to
provide for them. Some children have been abused sexually and physically because their
parents sent them to hawk goods. Some children are unable to complete their studies
because of the failure of the parents to sponsor them. All parents should know that it is their
responsibility to finance the education of their children.
Point of Emphasis: Be a responsible and caring parent.
Prayer Point: Great provider, meet the needs of my family in Jesus’ name.
Reading the Bible through in a Year: Ezek. 11-13
instruction of their father not to drink wine from generation to generation, we should
consistently use them to challenge and motivate our children to be obedient to the godly
instructions we give them. We should also instruct them to pass same to their children who
will in turn pass them to their own children and so on. Christian children should remain
true to their conviction, refusing to disobey the godly instructions their parents give like the
Rechabites. Jonadab gave the instruction that they may stay separate from the Canaanites.
So must our children stay separate from unbelievers.
Point of Emphasis: Obedience is better than sacrifice.
Prayer Point: Help my children to obey godly instructions oh Lord.
Reading the Bible through in a Year: Ezek. 14-16
ungodly instructions like the Rechabites. Jonadab gave the instruction that they should stay
separate from the Canaanites, so must our children stay separate from the conducts of
unbelievers. Parenting godly children is very challenging. It is a God’s given responsibility
which demands obedience, seriousness, diligence, prayer, love and so on. Parenting is much
more than giving birth to children. There are many children who have constituted
themselves to be nuisance, armed robbers, drug addicts, kidnappers, prostitutes and so on
because of lack of godly parenting. Every parent must bear in mind that the opportunity
God has given you to have one or more children, carries with it the great responsibility of
godly parenting. God who gives children, also gives the grace to raise godly children.
PART 1: GODLY AND MODEL PARENTS – MATT 7:24-27; JAM. 1:22-25; 1 COR.
Parents who will raise godly children must have an encounter with Jesus. They must
have received Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. They must be new creatures as a result of
repentance and conversion. It is what you have that you can give to another person. It is
faith in Jesus that can empower parents to raise godly children.
Such parents must make the word of God the ruler of their lives in daily practice.
Their choices, decisions and ways of life must conform to the Bible. They must allow the
word of God to have the final say about everything they do. They must strive to bear all the
aspects of the fruit of the spirit as a lifestyle (love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control).
Moreover, parents who will raise godly children must live exemplary lives. They
must live lives worthy of emulation. Hypocrisy and duplicity have hardened the hearts of
some children. What they observe in the lives of their parents at home are contrary to the
message of the Pastors and the Sunday school teachers. Hence, they have been misled. The
parents who gossip, fight, backbite, curse or who are easily provoked cannot raise godly
children. Some husbands beat their wives, how sad!
As a parent, what your children see you do have greater impact on them than what
you preach. If you want your children to be honest, humble, and diligent, practise those
virtues.
If you want your children to cultivate the habit of personal Bible study and prayer, let
them see you doing same. In Luke 11:1, when Jesus’ disciples saw him praying, one of them
said to him, Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. This was what gave rise
to the popular model prayer in Matthew 6:9-13.
their care or watch. Every parent must raise children to be godly and fulfil God’s purpose.
On this note, a few suggestions will be made on how to parent godly children.
1. Intercession (Lam. 2:19, Lk. 22:31-32) - Every parent must diligently intercede for their
children right from when they are conceived in the womb. The devil targets every child
to steal, kill and destroy. Below are some of his devices:
o He attacks some children in the womb through sicknesses, deformities, demonic
possession and afflictions.
o He hardens the hearts of some children against the gospel.
o He influences many children to be addicted to drug, sex, violence and various
crimes.
o He influences some children to be indolent, careless, pleasure seeking and so on.
Hence, every parent must intercede to raise godly children.
2 Modeling (1 Cor. 11:1) - Parents must be examples of godly virtues.
3. Consistent Teaching (Deut. 6:4-9, Eph. 6:4) - The Bible instructs parents to diligently
teach their children the word of God in order to be well established in the Lord,
overcome temptations and fulfil God’s purpose.
4. Discipline (Prov. 23:13-14) - Parents should appropriately correct their children when
they err with love. Let them know why you are correcting them. Beating children may
make the children to be hardened. If you have to use the rod, it must be with love and
not in anger or furry so that you don’t injure them. Note that there are countries that
have promulgated law against beating children. It is counted as child abuse. Parents in
such countries should not take law into their hands.
5. Protect your children against sexual immorality and rape (Prov. 6:20-35; 7:1-27, 1 Cor.
6:15-20, Heb. 13:4) - One of the potent tools that the devil is using to ruin the lives of people is sexual immorality, therefore, teach, enlighten and warn your children against
it. Give your children sex education early enough before their peers, mass media and
internet mislead them.
6. Encourage your children to be involved in church services and programmes (Heb. 10:25)
Don’t leave your children at home while going to church. This will definitely not help
the children. Encourage your children to identify their gifts and use them.
7. Encourage your children to cultivate the lifestyle of personal communion with God (Mk.
1:35) - They should set a particular time aside to praise God, study the word of God
consistently and offer prayers to God.
8. Teach your children to be diligent (Prov. 6: 6-11; 22:29; 26: 13-16) - One of the habits the
parents should inculcate in their children is diligence at work. Many children are lazy.
They are not interested in hardwork either at home or in their studies but they want to
eat the best food, put on good dresses and live in pleasure. Some girls cannot prepare
good food. This will give them problem when they get married.
9. Train them to have absolute trust and confidence in God (Matt. 7: 24-27, 1 Sam. 1: 8-18,
Heb. 11:11-12, Rom. 4:18-22, Heb. 13: 5-6) - As parents, we must put our total trust in
God in times of difficulties, problems and challenges of life. We must also teach our
children to do same.
10. Family devotion or Family altar (Deut. 6:4-7; 2 Tim. 1:5; 2 Tim. 3:15) - Apart from the
personal devotion, every member of the family must come together before they leave the
house in the morning and before they sleep in the night to read the bible and pray
together. The family devotion strengthen the relationship among members of the family
and also enriches their relationship with God.
should go. Reasonable parents must adhere to this injuction. They should encourage their
children to seek God. There are four basic styles which parents use in training their children.
These styles were identified by Diana Baumrind – a clinical and developmental psychologist
The four types are briefly explained below:
1. Authoritative parenting: It allows enough freedom of expression for the development
of children. It maintains control over the children, deals with them according to the
level of their development. They teach by example not just dishing out commands.
2. Authoritarian parenting: This is a strict disciplinarian that exercise absolute control.
The communication is one way. They don’t allow the children to express themselves.
Children raised under this method seems to be obedient reluctantly, quiet and sad.
3. Permissive parents: Under this method, there is no control. Children are
overindulged to do whatever they like. Parents set rule but never enforce it. Children
are given all they want with a view to showing them love. The children raised under
this platform may likely lack manner and be responsible.
4. Uninvolved parenting: Children are provided with their basic needs but the parents
are not directly involved in the children’s growth and development. They are
emotionally distant from them. They put priority on their own need above the needs
of their children. In view of this, children raised with this style feel unimportant.
As a Christian parent, how successful are you in your parenting responsibility? It is
not too late for you to rectify whatever anomaly you observe. Train up your children
effectively in the way they should go.
Any child that is not trained brings shame to his or her parent and harm to him or herself. It
is expedient for parents to not fail in their responsibility in parenting godly children.
2. Explain how important intercession is in the upbringing of children.
3. Why do you think the society is filled with youths who are into drug addiction, prostitution, stealing, armed robbery and so on?
4. What is the place of unity between the husband and the wife in the upbringing of their children?
5. How important is obedience in the lives of children as their parents make effort to raise them up in goodly ways?
Source
DAILY DEVOTIOANL READING
MON. 22/4/2019 UNTRAINED CHILDREN BRING SHAME PROV. 29:15-17
Any child not trained in the way of God will bring shame to his or her family. He or she willalso harm himself or herself. Sometimes, words of reproof alone are enough, at other times
the Bible says “that children can be corrected during their formative years with rod. However,
Christians should note that there are countries that see this as ‘child abuse’ and have
legislated against it. Parents should not take the law into their hands. They should continue
to intercede for their children and feed them with the word of God.
Point of Emphasis: Untrained children bring shame to their parents and harm to themselves.
Prayer Point: Father, give me wisdom to bring up my children in the way of the Lord.
Reading the Bible through in a Year: Lam. 1-3
TUE. 23/4/2019 PASS ON GOD’S GODLY INSTRUCTIONS 1 KGS. 2:1-4
As a parent, you must have a personal encounter with Jesus as Lord and Saviour andalways walk according to the word of God before you can raise godly children. Your
intimate relationship with God will enhance you to influence to your children to obey God.
David knew through painful experience and discipline that for someone to be successful in
life, the person must walk in the way of the Lord. In view of this, he instructed Solomon to
live in perfect obedience to God, though Solomon failed to heed the godly admonition given
him. This resulted to God’s judgment on him (1 Kgs. 11:1-13). Christian parents must not
fail in their responsibility to admonish their children with godly messages. The children too
must not refuse to walk in the godly advice given him.
Point of Emphasis: Christian parents should not fail to pass godly instructions to their children. The children must take to their parent’s advice.
Prayer Point: Help me Holy Spirit to perform the duty to guide my children right. Help the children to adhere to godly instructions.
Reading the Bible through in a Year: Lam. 4- Ezek. 1
WED. 24/4/2019 EFFECTIVE CHILD TRAINING PROV. 22:1-6
Effective child training is important and challenging. This is because of the followingreasons among others. First, all children are born sinners because of the fall of man (Rom.
3:23). Unless they are born-again, they will manifest the works of the flesh. Second, children
generally have self-will they want to exhibit. Unless their self-will is broken and made
submissive to the will of God, they will not be godly (Gal. 5:19-21). Third there are many
negative influences out there through; peers; mass media, and so on, therefore, parents must
lovingly, prayerfully, patiently and diligently train their children with the word of God and modeling.
Point of Emphasis: Train your children by example.
Prayer point: Give me the wisdom, patience and anointing to train my children. Also remove every attitude that is anti-Christian from my family in Jesus’ name.
Reading the Bible through in a Year: Ezek. 2-4
THUR. 25/4/2019 LEAD YOUR CHILDREN TO RECEIVE CHRIST 2 TIM. 1:3-5; JN. 3:3
One of the major responsibilities of parents is to lead their children to receive Christ as theirpersonal Lord and Saviour. It is a costly assumption to believe that the children are saved
because they have been going to church with you since they were born or they can recite
memory verses or they have joined the choir and the Sunday school work force. They can
be in any of the above but outside Christ! The decision to receive Christ and to become a
new creature must be taken by each person no matter who the parents are in the church.
Therefore, preach the gospel to your children in the power of the Holy Ghost, Give them
the opportunity to willingly receive Christ.
Point of Emphasis: It is your responsibility to lead your children to Christ.
Prayer Point: Heavenly Father, save all members of my family including my biological children and all those who live in my home in Jesus’ name.
Reading the Bible through in a Year: Ezek. 5-7
FRI. 26/4/2019 PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN AGAINST CORRUPTING INFLUENCES 2 SAM. 13:1-15
Children face challenging and negative influences such as bad peers, internet pornography,sinful T.V programmes, worldly dressing and fashion. These have influenced many children
into drug addiction, sexual immorality, armed robbery, kidnapping, rape, ritual killing,
cultism, prostitution and so on. Therefore, guide, enlighten and warn your children against
bad companionship. Allow your children to bring their friends to the house so that you can
know them. Note that many children who come from Christian homes have been
influenced badly in the school and in the society. Periodically, check the messages on their phones.
Point of Emphasis: Do not be deceived, evil company corrupts good habits (I Cor. 15:33).
Prayer Point: Father, separate my children from bad friends.
Reading the Bible through in a Year: Ezek. 8-10
SAT. 27/4/2019 MAKE PROVISION FOR YOUR HOME 1 TIM. 5:8; GAL. 6:9-10
Make adequate provision for your family as God helps you. Provide food, clothing, shelterand education for your children. Many children have been lured with money into
prostitution, armed robbery, kidnapping, rape because of the failure of the parents to
provide for them. Some children have been abused sexually and physically because their
parents sent them to hawk goods. Some children are unable to complete their studies
because of the failure of the parents to sponsor them. All parents should know that it is their
responsibility to finance the education of their children.
Point of Emphasis: Be a responsible and caring parent.
Prayer Point: Great provider, meet the needs of my family in Jesus’ name.
Reading the Bible through in a Year: Ezek. 11-13
SUN. 28/4/2019 LEARN FROM THE RECHABITES JER. 35:1-15
As God was proud of the Rechabites because of their loyalty and obedience to theinstruction of their father not to drink wine from generation to generation, we should
consistently use them to challenge and motivate our children to be obedient to the godly
instructions we give them. We should also instruct them to pass same to their children who
will in turn pass them to their own children and so on. Christian children should remain
true to their conviction, refusing to disobey the godly instructions their parents give like the
Rechabites. Jonadab gave the instruction that they may stay separate from the Canaanites.
So must our children stay separate from unbelievers.
Point of Emphasis: Obedience is better than sacrifice.
Prayer Point: Help my children to obey godly instructions oh Lord.
Reading the Bible through in a Year: Ezek. 14-16
BACKGROUND
Christian children should remain true to their conviction. They should not take toungodly instructions like the Rechabites. Jonadab gave the instruction that they should stay
separate from the Canaanites, so must our children stay separate from the conducts of
unbelievers. Parenting godly children is very challenging. It is a God’s given responsibility
which demands obedience, seriousness, diligence, prayer, love and so on. Parenting is much
more than giving birth to children. There are many children who have constituted
themselves to be nuisance, armed robbers, drug addicts, kidnappers, prostitutes and so on
because of lack of godly parenting. Every parent must bear in mind that the opportunity
God has given you to have one or more children, carries with it the great responsibility of
godly parenting. God who gives children, also gives the grace to raise godly children.
NOTES ON THE TEXT
PART 1: GODLY AND MODEL PARENTS – MATT 7:24-27; JAM. 1:22-25; 1 COR.
11:1
Parents who will raise godly children must have an encounter with Jesus. They musthave received Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. They must be new creatures as a result of
repentance and conversion. It is what you have that you can give to another person. It is
faith in Jesus that can empower parents to raise godly children.
Such parents must make the word of God the ruler of their lives in daily practice.
Their choices, decisions and ways of life must conform to the Bible. They must allow the
word of God to have the final say about everything they do. They must strive to bear all the
aspects of the fruit of the spirit as a lifestyle (love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control).
Moreover, parents who will raise godly children must live exemplary lives. They
must live lives worthy of emulation. Hypocrisy and duplicity have hardened the hearts of
some children. What they observe in the lives of their parents at home are contrary to the
message of the Pastors and the Sunday school teachers. Hence, they have been misled. The
parents who gossip, fight, backbite, curse or who are easily provoked cannot raise godly
children. Some husbands beat their wives, how sad!
As a parent, what your children see you do have greater impact on them than what
you preach. If you want your children to be honest, humble, and diligent, practise those
virtues.
If you want your children to cultivate the habit of personal Bible study and prayer, let
them see you doing same. In Luke 11:1, when Jesus’ disciples saw him praying, one of them
said to him, Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. This was what gave rise
to the popular model prayer in Matthew 6:9-13.
PART 2: HOW TO RAISE GODLY CHILDREN –DEUT. 6:4-9; EPH. 6:1-4; LAM. 2:19; PROV. 29:17, 22:6.
God will surely hold every parent accountable over every child who grows undertheir care or watch. Every parent must raise children to be godly and fulfil God’s purpose.
On this note, a few suggestions will be made on how to parent godly children.
1. Intercession (Lam. 2:19, Lk. 22:31-32) - Every parent must diligently intercede for their
children right from when they are conceived in the womb. The devil targets every child
to steal, kill and destroy. Below are some of his devices:
o He attacks some children in the womb through sicknesses, deformities, demonic
possession and afflictions.
o He hardens the hearts of some children against the gospel.
o He influences many children to be addicted to drug, sex, violence and various
crimes.
o He influences some children to be indolent, careless, pleasure seeking and so on.
Hence, every parent must intercede to raise godly children.
2 Modeling (1 Cor. 11:1) - Parents must be examples of godly virtues.
3. Consistent Teaching (Deut. 6:4-9, Eph. 6:4) - The Bible instructs parents to diligently
teach their children the word of God in order to be well established in the Lord,
overcome temptations and fulfil God’s purpose.
4. Discipline (Prov. 23:13-14) - Parents should appropriately correct their children when
they err with love. Let them know why you are correcting them. Beating children may
make the children to be hardened. If you have to use the rod, it must be with love and
not in anger or furry so that you don’t injure them. Note that there are countries that
have promulgated law against beating children. It is counted as child abuse. Parents in
such countries should not take law into their hands.
5. Protect your children against sexual immorality and rape (Prov. 6:20-35; 7:1-27, 1 Cor.
6:15-20, Heb. 13:4) - One of the potent tools that the devil is using to ruin the lives of people is sexual immorality, therefore, teach, enlighten and warn your children against
it. Give your children sex education early enough before their peers, mass media and
internet mislead them.
6. Encourage your children to be involved in church services and programmes (Heb. 10:25)
Don’t leave your children at home while going to church. This will definitely not help
the children. Encourage your children to identify their gifts and use them.
7. Encourage your children to cultivate the lifestyle of personal communion with God (Mk.
1:35) - They should set a particular time aside to praise God, study the word of God
consistently and offer prayers to God.
8. Teach your children to be diligent (Prov. 6: 6-11; 22:29; 26: 13-16) - One of the habits the
parents should inculcate in their children is diligence at work. Many children are lazy.
They are not interested in hardwork either at home or in their studies but they want to
eat the best food, put on good dresses and live in pleasure. Some girls cannot prepare
good food. This will give them problem when they get married.
9. Train them to have absolute trust and confidence in God (Matt. 7: 24-27, 1 Sam. 1: 8-18,
Heb. 11:11-12, Rom. 4:18-22, Heb. 13: 5-6) - As parents, we must put our total trust in
God in times of difficulties, problems and challenges of life. We must also teach our
children to do same.
10. Family devotion or Family altar (Deut. 6:4-7; 2 Tim. 1:5; 2 Tim. 3:15) - Apart from the
personal devotion, every member of the family must come together before they leave the
house in the morning and before they sleep in the night to read the bible and pray
together. The family devotion strengthen the relationship among members of the family
and also enriches their relationship with God.
PART 3: HOW SUCCESSFUL IS YOUR PARENTING RESPONSIBILITY? – PROV. 22:6
The Scriptures speaks of the need for parents to train their children in the way theyshould go. Reasonable parents must adhere to this injuction. They should encourage their
children to seek God. There are four basic styles which parents use in training their children.
These styles were identified by Diana Baumrind – a clinical and developmental psychologist
The four types are briefly explained below:
1. Authoritative parenting: It allows enough freedom of expression for the development
of children. It maintains control over the children, deals with them according to the
level of their development. They teach by example not just dishing out commands.
2. Authoritarian parenting: This is a strict disciplinarian that exercise absolute control.
The communication is one way. They don’t allow the children to express themselves.
Children raised under this method seems to be obedient reluctantly, quiet and sad.
3. Permissive parents: Under this method, there is no control. Children are
overindulged to do whatever they like. Parents set rule but never enforce it. Children
are given all they want with a view to showing them love. The children raised under
this platform may likely lack manner and be responsible.
4. Uninvolved parenting: Children are provided with their basic needs but the parents
are not directly involved in the children’s growth and development. They are
emotionally distant from them. They put priority on their own need above the needs
of their children. In view of this, children raised with this style feel unimportant.
As a Christian parent, how successful are you in your parenting responsibility? It is
not too late for you to rectify whatever anomaly you observe. Train up your children
effectively in the way they should go.
CONCLUSION
It is important for Christian parents to train their children in the way of the Lord.Any child that is not trained brings shame to his or her parent and harm to him or herself. It
is expedient for parents to not fail in their responsibility in parenting godly children.
QUESTIONS
1. What do you think parents must possess before they can raise godly children?2. Explain how important intercession is in the upbringing of children.
3. Why do you think the society is filled with youths who are into drug addiction, prostitution, stealing, armed robbery and so on?
4. What is the place of unity between the husband and the wife in the upbringing of their children?
5. How important is obedience in the lives of children as their parents make effort to raise them up in goodly ways?
Source
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