Title: Let's Nurture Like This / Ephesians 6:4
Content: Let's raise like this (nurture that pleases your children).
Ephesians 6:4, Judges 17:1-6
It is the second hour of Family Month. Today's talk is about raising children on Parent's Day. Today's verse in Ephesians says:
“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and admonition of the Lord.”
There is something to pay attention to in today's verse. It says, 'Do not provoke your children to anger.' Because this word precedes the word to raise children. These two commands are interrelated. The word 'to anger' refers to the emotional aspect, and the word to nurture has a more comprehensive aspect.
You can see that the Bible emphasizes that the emotional aspect of the child is an aspect that parenting parents should be concerned with. If there is a life that provokes children, it can be seen that it contains the aspect that it is impossible to raise children through the Word.
What does it mean to provoke a child? It is to instill anger in your child. It's about making you feel bad for your parents emotionally. How can a child feel bad for his or her parents?
Yes, when parents act against their children. This is the case when we make the parents exceptional in the lessons we teach our children. When this happens, the child becomes frustrated with the parents and develops into anger.
This often happens in the homes of saints. When teaching them to live by faith and not living by faith, their children will have a confused view of their faith. You will be disappointed with such parents. So, they lose faith and live a life that does not acknowledge God.
It is impossible to raise children who are emotionally damaged in this way through the Word of God. They no longer recognize the authority of the Word and live a life of their own.
There was a family of Micah in the time of the Judges (Judges 17:1-6). However, in order to teach religious education to her beloved son Micah, the mother made idols to serve God (verses 3-4). In order for his beloved son to live a holy life before God, he had him make an idol out of the holy silver.
In this case, there is no immediate damage to the child's emotions. However, they will suffer emotional damage in the future as a result of such a life of God's discipline on their children and their communities.
Why did Micah's mother make her children serve God with the wrong instruction? Verse 6 has the answer. It is said that 'everyone did what was right in his own eyes'. He was teaching his son the faith of his own standards.
Micah's mother applied religious education that endangered the future of her children and the community because of her ignorance of God's Word. We can only imagine the torment Micah must endure when he learns this in the future.
Parents should educate their children so that they can build their children's future values into a beautiful and blessed image. Ignorance of parents' words can ruin the future values of their children. This is the lesson of Micah's example. Micah's mother didn't know the word, so she went out with a faith that went against the odds. So it darkened the future of our children and our community.
In order for parents not to go against the antinomian faith, they must apply the faith life based on the Word of God. Instead of raising children according to what is right in their own eyes, they must teach them with God's culture and God's admonition.
If we are to raise our children in the discipline and admonition of the Lord, we must help them grow emotionally. You need to build relationships so that they don't emotionally turn against their parents. After that, we must educate ourselves with the Word. At that time, the word you preach can come to them as authority.
conclude the word.
What is the path to an education that pleases your children?
Live a life of obedience to your parents first. This is how you help your child feel. It is a way for children to acknowledge the authority of God's Word. It shows that the Word is above the parents.
Challenge the life that parents and children together make with the Word of God. Together, we must challenge ourselves to obey this Word in our homes and lives. For this, we must pray and work together.
Then, your children will gladly obey the word of God and become the children who build you up by obeying their parents.