Abraham Lincoln said something to the effect “It is not what we get from our ancestors, but what we pass along to our children that really counts.”

When God commanded mankind to “Go forth and multiply,” He was not just expecting increased numbers. He was also expecting us to rear our children to be “in His image.”

This is an awesome responsibility. And none of us as parents are perfect, just as our parents were not perfect. Our kids don’t come fully assembled. Raising them makes the Christmas Eve tradition of assembling their toys seem like, well, child’s play. Many manuals have been published on how to raise ‘em. Many of us here were raised via the Dr. Spock manual. That one didn’t necessarily work out so well.

I think the best manual is still the Holy Bible, but even there the instructions don’t address many specific situations.

Here are a couple of things that our kids expect:

Be honest with them. This is a tough one. We all have things we don’t want to tell our kids. And we have to be age appropriate as we instruct them in the ways of life. Honesty does not necessarily mean “full disclosure,” but we do have to address their questions with honesty.

Authenticity. Closely related to honesty, we have to be authentic in the role models we show our children. They don’t expect perfection once they have reached an age of reasoning ability. But “Do as I say, not as I do” just doesn’t cut it with our kids. They see though it like the clearest of glass. That didn’t work for the Pharisees either. To not be authentic is to be a hypocrite!

Raising our kids is a Christian responsibility. Being honest and authentic is often hard. Doing so before our kids often places us in very uncomfortable situations.

But they expect no less, and we can’t afford to let them down.

Shalom,
Art

Alive in The Word