Being Pleasing To God

In our year long study of The Story at Woodville Baptist Church, we have discovered a lot of neat things.  One that stood out this week was how some times our children follow our leading and how some times they don’t.  Amazingly, some times our children pick up the correct learning even when we have failed to provide it.

Let me just mention a brief time period in Judah’s history.  One of the best kings to rule  Judah in the Old Testament was King Hezediah.  He had a son, Manasseh, but Manasseh turned out to be the most evil king Judah had.  The Bible records this fact about Manasseh, "He sacrificed his own son in the fire, ..., He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, provoking Him to anger." (2 Kings 21:6)  Manaaseh had a son, Amon, who was also a bad king.  But, then Amom had a son, Josiah, who was one of the very best kings Judah had.  So, Manasseh was Josiah’s grandfather.  Figure that out!

Actually, because of Josiah’s desire to please God, God gave Judah 31 more years of peace.  The Bible records this fact about Josiah, "Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did – with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with the Law of Moses." (2 Kings 23:25)

Josiah did exactly what God wants all of us to do.  "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." (Deuteronomy 6:5)  Jesus even  repeats these words "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30)

So, how do Christian parents teach their children the love of God?  I know what Proverbs says, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart  from it." (Proverbs 22:6).  But I also know what I have seen in families.  This doesn’t always work.

The most important thing we parents can do has to be more than lecturing.  We have to do more than just speak words, we have to practice what we teach.  Our actions have to match our words.  "Walk the talk" in others words.  But is that a guaranty  that our children well follow?  No, it is not.  Our children, just like we ourselves, have to make their own choices.  But if we do our part, then our children have a much better chance of choosing the right path.  Plus if we do our part, then we know that we have done all we can.