At Home with God

God has given you authority over your children.  I’m not thinking about this in terms of discipline, though if you are in a battle with a toddler or a teenager it can be helpful to remember who God put in charge and who should act as an adult next time you feel tempted to throw something across the room.  Rather I want to think about the spiritual implications of us having authority.  Jonah was able to preach to the Ninevites because he had been sent. The kings of Israel had authority over the land of Israel and the priests of Israel were given authority over the people’s lives. Abraham was able to intercede for Sodom because his family were there. Authority has almost become a dirty word in modern day families. We are happy to think about responsibilities in the family, but the word authority brings to mind an authoritarian style of parenting where parents clamp down on their children’s every move and barely let them breathe or eat without permission. Let’s not confuse a...

As we drill into 7 different sins from parents in the Bible, I hope that these will serve as guard rails for us as we raise our children not to make us feel weighed down, but rather to free us to do what is right without caring what others think about our decisions because we are seeking to follow God’s leading in the way we raise our children. In this final blog in our series on the sins of parents in the Bible we turn to one of the greatest leaders in the Bible - King David.  David receives the high accolade from the Lord that he is a man after God’s own heart. When David desires to build a temple for the Lord, the Lord instead promises to build his house. David then ploughs his whole personal fortune into the building of the temple.  So important was King David in the history of Israel that the Messiah had to come from the line of king David. In spite of the sins of later kings in Judah, God delays sending them into exile all for the sake of his servant David. This blessing...

As we drill into 7 different sins from parents in the Bible, I hope that these will serve as guard rails for us as we raise our children not to make us feel weighed down, but rather to free us to do what is right without caring what others think about our decisions because we are seeking to follow God’s leading in the way we raise our children. God has entrusted our children to us. He describes as children as olive branches around our table (Psalm 128:3), as arrows in our hand (Psalm 127:4) and as a gift from God (Psalm 127:3). He has given us the charge to teach our children (Deuteronomy 6:7), to discipline them (Proverbs 19:18) and to raise them in the way they should go (Proverbs 22:6). With this kind of burden it is a task that God has given us which we should take seriously. Indeed Jewish believers read the Shema daily which includes the commandment to teach your children throughout the day. The whole purpose of this is to raise children who will serve the Lord all the days of the...

  As we drill into 7 different sins from parents in the Bible, I hope that these will serve as guard rails for us as we raise our children not to make us feel weighed down, but rather to free us to do what is right without caring what others think about our decisions because we are seeking to follow God’s leading in the way we raise our children. Don’t exasperate Jacob is seen as one of the three great patriarchs of the Old Testament. The Lord allows himself to be described as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. While Abraham was only entrusted with one promised son and Issac had twins, Jacob had 12 sons to take care of, each of which became leaders of the tribes of Israel.  You would have thought that Jacob would be smashing the parenting thing – an example of the perfect father whom we should all look to and follow. Yet looking at his life I see two specific errors that he makes with his parenting that we are going to look at over the next two blogs.  But first a quick...

As we drill into 7 different sins from parents in the Bible, I hope that these will serve as guard rails for us as we raise our children not to make us feel weighed down, but rather to free us to do what is right without caring what others think about our decisions because we are seeking to follow God’s leading in the way we raise our children. The model king Hezekiah was a great king. He led the nation of Judah in very trying times and through all of this we read that he ‘did what was right in the sight of the Lord’ (2 Kings 18:3). Indeed, God’s opinion of Hezekiah is great. He inspired the writers of 2 Kings 18 to say about him, ‘Hezekiah trusted the Lord God of Israel. No other king of Judah was like Hezekiah, either before or after him. 6 He was completely faithful to the Lord and obeyed the laws the Lord had given to Moses for the people. 7 The Lord helped Hezekiah, so he was successful in everything he did. He even rebelled against the king of Assyria, refusing to be his servant....

  As we drill into 7 different sins from parents in the Bible, I hope that these will serve as guard rails for us as we raise our children not to make us feel weighed down, but rather to free us to do what is right without caring what others think about our decisions because we are seeking to follow God’s leading in the way we raise our children. Abraham is one of the most revered men of God in the whole of the Bible. He was faithful to God throughout his life, even willing to sacrifice his own, long-awaited son if that’s what the Lord required of him. You would think that his life would be a model of perfection for us as parents to follow and in many ways this is the case.  But in one way Abraham failed.  Before we dive into Abraham’s failure let’s just take a moment to pause and reflect on the grace of God. If you ever feel like you have fallen short of God’ standards as a parent (which parent hasn’t), it does not mean that you are a failure. Even if you know that your ...

  As we drill into 7 different sins from parents in the Bible, I hope that these will serve as guard rails for us as we raise our children not to make us feel weighed down, but rather to free us to do what is right without caring what others think about our decisions because we are seeking to follow God’s leading in the way we raise our children. Samuel was a great judge and leader in Israel. He served the Lord faithfully from when he was a boy, growing up in the temple. The story of him hearing the Lord as a boy is infamous among children’s leaders and others who want to see a generation raised up who know the Lord. As it says in 1 Samuel 3:19 ‘So Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.’ Towards the end of his public ministry Samuel was able to look back on all his years as a judge in Israel and state, I’ve served you from childhood to old age, who have I cheated or wronged. The people reply in 1 Samuel 12:4 “You have not cheated us or ...

As we drill into 7 different sins from parents in the Bible, I hope that these will serve as guard rails for us as we raise our children not to make us feel weighed down, but rather to free us to do what is right without caring what others think about our decisions because we are seeking to follow God’s leading in the way we raise our children. Eli was the high priest – an important man in his time. It appears he was respected and his office as high priest was valued by much of Israel, but as a parent he sinned. What was his sin and how can we make sure we don’t fall into the sin of Eli? Eli’s sons’ sin Eli’s two sons were stealing from the sacrifices that people were bringing to the Lord. As priests they had every right to take the sacrifices – this was part of their support for doing the Lord’s work, but the Lord had laid down requirements. The most important was that they should not eat the fat or blood of the offerings. ‘And the priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breas...

Okay, so we’re going to be talking about various sins that highlighted in the Bible – the sins of parents. Now before you stop reading and run to lock yourself in the toilet (come on parents, who has not done that at least once when you needed some space from your children) bear with me for a bit.  Every parent I know feels like they are not doing a good enough job at some point. We walk under the weight of failure. The aim of this series is not to add to this burden of guilt, but rather to bring clarity as to what the Lord expects from us as parents.  Raising children in today’s world is confusion and at times perplexing. Boundaries and best practice seem to change each month and there is a great drive to comply with the world’s expectations. The added pressure of ‘if you don’t do this you will damage your child’s future, if you do this you will harm them.’ It’s enough to stir the most well-meaning of parents into inaction. Sometimes it is unspoken, but the standards and judg...

  One day I had a revelation: When Jesus blessed the children, they were blessed!    Okay, I know that sounds obvious, but bear with me a moment while I explain. If Jesus walked into a room, blessed two of the people there, then walked out again, we would expect those two people’s lives to take a turn for the better from that moment on, wouldn’t we?    In other words, when Jesus blessed people, it was not a case of wishing the best for them, or even speaking a few nice words to make them feel well. Nor was it a superstitious act or a magic spell. Instead, it was a divine declaration that had the power to change the direction of a life. In short, there was power in the blessing that Jesus spoke: when Jesus blessed the children, they were blessed!    This is the Jewish understanding of blessing: it invites God’s presence to come to that person or into a situation. As we pray blessings over our children, we are inviting God to fulfil His will for their li...

My children clean their teeth most days now without us having to ask (though they do still need the odd reminder).   This is the fruit of some very intentional work on our part as parents. We saw personal as an essential part of their preparation for future life so built in a routine of brushing their teeth from when they were very little.  Supporting the more when they were younger, then encouraging them and now leaving them to it.  In the same way we should encourage our children to develop their own times of reading the Bible.  In our home this is encouraged from when they have the skills to be able to read the simplest Bibles and are older than five so able to take some measure of responsibility for it.  Set a target Set a target of reading for your children, perhaps by guiding them to a particular book. For children in primary school a few verses or a short story is a good starting point, for children in secondary school a chapter a day is very achiev...

It can be daunting to know where to start when it comes to reading the Bible as a family.  I’m not thinking so much about the  how  we can read the Bible together – there are hundreds of amazing resources and suggestions out there that address this. Rather, I am seeking to reflect on  what  we should be reading.  Where should we start? Here are 8 ideas of places to begin your Bible reading journey as a family. These have come from history, personal experience and from speaking with the oldest members of our congregations to hear what their parents used to do for them when they were children.   1. T he core stories.  When children are young you can simply open a Bible story book, snuggle up on the sofa and start to read. Stories of Jonah, Adam and Eve, David & Goliath and the miracles of Jesus are all the more gripping when hearing them for the first time and enjoyable when they become well known. They help lay a foundation of Bible knowle...