Training up children

Last night in bible class, Scott was teaching about Abram and how he started a ripple effect- God led him to Canaan, but Abram took it upon himself to move his family to Egypt after that instead of staying, all without asking God what he should do. In Egypt he was given great wealth, which led to the destruction of his nephew's family. He was given a maidservant, Hagar, and we all know where that led. (Ishmael? Father of the Muslims?) All these seemingly good and "right" choices were made by Abram alone. Not once did he involve God in the decision making.

Obvious take away from this is.......always involve God in your decision making. Even if it seems like an easy no brainer that we can figure out on our own. That got me to thinking. Of course Satan whispers the lie of independence to us. Of course our selfish and prideful hearts want to do things on our own. BUT. As parents, have we failed our kids by not modeling this so that it becomes second nature when they have grown up?

We model everything for our kids. To death. We use please and thank you so when prompted, children won't look at us funny when asked to be polite. We say prayers out loud to instruct them of the proper and respectful way to come before our Lord. We buckle our own seat belts so that little voices won't pipe up from the back seat "Why do I have to if you aren't?" Same for eating our vegetables and following through with responsibilities we don't particularly enjoy.

So at what point do we, as parents, need to accept the responsibility for when the next generation goes a little awry when it comes to how they make choices for their life? I've realized that I'm going to have to be a chain-breaker. I am going to have to start making a conscious decision every day to model for my children what it means to include God in their life choices. I want for it to be in their nature to ask God for guidance in what they should or shouldn't be doing. And this means, just as I lost all private bathroom trip privileges when I bore children, I've also lost some of my rights to private prayer requests. (I said some. Not all. They are still children, you know.)

Luke's going to be making a choice in a few months on whether he wants to continue to play tee ball or switch back to soccer. I can't forget to pray about that with him.

He'll be starting kindergarten in the fall, which means choosing new friends. I can't forget to pray about that with him.

Will my children get it right all of time? Please. I hope no one is naive enough to think that eventually they will. But hopefully they will gain insight and learn to hear what the voice of their Father really sounds like so that when the REALLY BIG DECISIONS come (like... Should I get baptized now? Should I marry this person? What career should I have?) they will be able to decipher between the quiet whisper of the One who knows all and the subtle wooing of their own selfish desires. And maybe, just maybe, they won't be thirty and looking back, wondering where it all went wrong.