"its amazed me that all your kids accepted the Lord as his savior so early age, can you help me how you did it , to bring them to understand more and accept Him. thank you"
What a question to ponder! As
I thought about this question, I realized that there is not one
single answer. There are many ways a parent can influence their
child. Our influence on them is so important, though. They really
do hang on our every word and weigh our every motive. Sobering
thought!
When
Joshua was little, we started asking lots of questions to parents
around us. If we saw a family with children that loved the Lord and
wanted to serve Him, we would pick their brain and pepper them with
questions! I am so thankful for their influence on us!! There are
many things I learned from others that I wanted implemented in my
life and the lives of my children. So, I thought I would the things I've done and why I
feel they helped my child to know the Lord. But, before I do I
wanted to mention 2 things:
~Ultimately,
it is up to each and every person to decide if they will accept
Christ. That's the liberty of having a free will. I can point my
children in the direction of Christ. But, the decision is up to
them. If it's not from the heart, then it doesn't matter in light of
eternity.
~Everyone
has goals for their children. ...goals for their schooling, activies,
character and future. The really neat thing, though, is when
"Loving God with all their heart" is our Ultimate Goal, all
the other things we want for our children will fall into place. All
their learning, activites, character, future...when they are based
off a foundation of "Loving God" the results of these will
be the best.
I divided what
I've learned into 3 areas:
Pray
About It- Ever since I found out about the new life growing inside
of me, I began praying. I would beg God that my children would
understand and see their need of a Savior at an early age. I asked
others to pray. Patrick and I prayed together. As my little ones
were born, I would continue to pray the same prayer. "Lord,
please help my baby understand and see their need of you as a Savior.
Help them accept you at an early age." It was always at the
top of my prayer list. Always. As they grew they would hear me
pray. I wanted them to know my desire for them. As I tucked them in
they would hear it. As we prayed for other things, they would hear
it. They grew up knowing the urgency of THEIR need of Jesus.
Talk
About It – Talk about Jesus! Let your kiddos hear of when you got
saved. Do they know your testimony? Tell them the story of Jesus.
Let them hear it from you. Also, let them hear it from others. When
our Joshua was little he had an amazing nursery worker, which also
happened to be an amazing friend. She had such a heart for the
little ones she had in the nursery. She was always telling them how
much Jesus loved them. She never let a Sunday go by where Joshua
didn't hear about his need of a Savior. I give her much of the
credit of seeing my little guy saved so young to my dear friend. She
didn't squander any of those moments in the nursery. It's great to
have a church that also has the same Ultimate Goal in mind that you
do! We also surrounded our children that had the same Ultimate Goal for them. They heard the gospel Sunday morning and evening. They heard it Wednesday night and at Sunday School. They heard it from their Abeka Bible teacher. They heard it from my friends and from their family members. They were surrounded by people who cared about where their soul would spend eternity.
Live
it- Time is truly a treasure. Live out a way that would make your
children see what you have and want it. Do you live out a life with
Christ that's appealing? Now, the negative side is that our children
see us not just at our best, but also at our worst. They know the true us. But,
even that can be a positive....if we are not hypocritical. And I
think that is the biggest key. Let's face it. We make mistakes. We
don't always live the way we want to. But when your kiddos see you
ask forgiveness and get things right, it goes much farther in
reaching them. Don't try to hide your failures from from them.
Hypocrisy will destroy your witness with your children.
Children have such child like faith, they are so ready to trust! But
we have to be careful. We never want to lead our children in a false
profession of faith. It has to come from their heart and they need to
have an understanding. That happens at different ages for everyone.
When our children began expressing their desire to be saved and
started asking a lot of questions, we knew they were close. But, we
knew they had to decide. Whenever my little ones would ask to get
saved, I'd tell them, “Let's talk to Daddy about it when he gets
home.” It's not that I was putting them off, it's just that I
wanted them to be so serious about it that they chose to remember to
ask. Brenna was the one that made me most nervous with this. She
asked about praying for months and months before she was serious
enough to remember. I prayed so much during that time.
I
have to say, that next to the day of my salvation and marrying my
sweetheart, seeing my kiddos accept Christ as their personal Savior
was the best days of my life. What a peace! It wasn't too long ago
that Micah came into Patrick's office and realized that He himself
needed to be saved. When I heard that prayer, and knew that I had
also heard that prayer from my other 5 children, I knew we would all
spend eternity together. What joy! What peace! So thankful for
that!! My Ultimate Goal in life was met. Together. Forever. No
greater joy!
So,
all 6 of mine have been saved. Without a doubt we don't always have
it together. It's easy to read a blog and assume someone has it “all
together.” We fail. We make mistakes. Some days I raise my voice
in a way that's not nice and my children disobey. Some days our
attitudes aren't right and we complain and grumble. You know what I
mean. But, honestly, in a real sense, my older three have shown an
honest desire to serve the Lord with their life and my younger three
are learning that as well. As they live, that will be a choice they
face everyday. It's a joy to see them have their time with the Lord
and make Him a priority. How did that happen? I talked to my girls
about their personal relationship with the Lord after they got saved and why they felt
that happened. I'll share in my next post their input and some ideas
of what we've done as parents.
"I have no greater joy
than to hear that my children walk in truth."
3 John 1:4
Great advice Kami. What joy to know you will see all your children throughout eternity.
ReplyDeletethank you for taking the time :)
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