Practical Advice for Christian Parents

I have some practical advice this week…

Put your children in environments and positions, especially when they get to be about 16 years old and older in which they have an opportunity to lead someone to Christ.

This has been a major priority for me as a father. And practically-speaking, it should be a priority for you.

In our home, our children grew up going to strong churches that taught the Bible. As a family, we would also have devotions together, and our children would study the Bible for school. We invested a lot of time making sure our children were armed with Bible knowledge and memorizing Scripture.

I don’t want to diminish the importance of knowing the Bible. But honestly, knowing the Bible is not rare.

Most are surprised when they hear the statistics on how many self-professing Christians have never led someone to Christ. Depending on who you reference,

These statistics are hitched together with the statistics of 75% of young people leaving the church when they leave the home. This means that there are a whole lot of young people leaving the church that have pretty deep knowledge of the Bible. I was actually one of them.

However, to those that are leaving the church and to me as a teenager, the stories in the Bible were just not real. They were stories and no different than mythology or Mother Goose or Winnie the Pooh or Shakespeare or any other fiction.

Many of you have read the story of me coming to know the Lord at 24 so I will not re-hash that story here.

However, I will say that one of the primary transformations in me pre- and post-Salvation was that the words of the Bible literally “jumped” off the page.

Therefore, as a Father who loves his children and wants nothing more in life than my kids to come to know the redeeming work of Salvation, I want my kids to see Scripture as “God-breathed” and alive as well. I want them to have that experience of the words jumping off the page.

Therefore, what I want as a father is that my children will see someone’s eyes light up when they explain the Gospel to them. I want my children to be able to articulate the Gospel in its most simple form and then pray with as many people as possible to believe in the free gift of Salvation. I want my children to be used by the Lord, and for them to literally watch the transformation in another person’s heart and mind as they realize what Salvation really is.

That is the culmination of Scripture. To me, that moment of a person believing is what the difficult history of God’s people and the looking forward to Christ is all about. That moment when a person believes and you see the Holy Spirit light up their eyes.

In that moment, a person suddenly understands.

“Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures…” (Luke 24:45)

This past weekend my son came home after a couple of weeks as a counselor at a local camp. When he left for camp at the beginning of June, my biggest prayer was that he would get the opportunity to lead someone—actually, many someones—to the Lord. That prayer has been answered. Praise the Lord!

He is now done what only 5% of Bible-believing Christian have. He is part of a select group that has led someone to know the “secret” that Paul talked about in his Epistles. My son, actually both of my sons, have now had that experience.

And, I encourage you as a parent to pray about and to prioritize putting your children in environments in which they can have that experience as well. It will strengthen their faith and give them roots that they didn’t have before!

It will make the Bible come alive for them as they watch the eyes open of new Believers.

Just to switch gears a little here…It is my belief that this is what is wrong with the country today. I am supportive of Christians running for political office, but the problem with the country is not more Christians sitting on the sidelines of the political system. We are losing our country because we never see tracks in bathrooms anymore. Evangelism services are a rarity in churches. And, church visitation is minimized!

Few are sharing the Gospel in anyway, even subtly. And, our children almost never experience anyone actually accepting the free gift of Salvation. Matter of fact, I would venture to say that most parents struggle to even explain what the Gospel really is.

So, how can they pass it down to their children??

If you yourself don’t fully understand what the Gospel really is and how it can change your life, I’d love the opportunity to tell you!

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