The atheists accuse Christians of keeping their children cloistered away from other views and indoctrinating these young and impressionable minds as opposed to presenting them with a range of choices. Which they say is unfair to the children.

According to dictionary.com, the word ‘indoctrination’ means to instruct in a doctrine, principle, ideology etc. especially to imbue with a specific partisan or biased belief or point of view. It goes on to say that indoctrination involves teaching someone to accept doctrine uncritically and that a synonym for the word is brainwashing.

Although there are some Christians who knowingly attempt to indoctrinate their children, most Christian parents do not, or at least don’t do it intentionally. Having said that, I do not believe that the Bible teaches us to pass our Faith to our children in a way that requires them to not question or reason, but to blindly believe and obey what we teach them. If we’re doing this, we need to actually listen to the criticism leveled at us, and change. Let me explain why I believe that.

Let’s start with a basic premise of our Faith. God put the ‘Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil’ in the Garden of Eden.  He allows each individual to accept or reject Christ and he also allows each person to live as they see fit, all because love always gives a choice. Logically then, how can we think that it’s right to ensure that our children won’t make the wrong choice by taking away their choice?

The Bible teaches that one of the keys to a deep and meaningful Faith is to seek God and to passionately search out truth. When we try to spoon feed our children a packaged truth and protect them from any objecting viewpoints, we unwittingly teach them that seeking and struggling for a meaningful relationship with God and for real understanding is not necessary. When we do this, we create another generation of unthinking Christians who remain baby Christians all of their lives.

Jesus taught that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth. (John 16:13) A guide directs someone who has already decided to go on a journey. How can the Holy Spirit guide our children to all truth if they’re not on a journey looking for it? If Jesus meant for our children to be only surrounded by truth and sheltered from all else, then they wouldn’t need a guide. If there’s only one clearly marked trail, what do you need a guide for?

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me.” He didn’t say to force them or to leave them no other choice.

If we look at Jesus as the example of how our children should be educated, here’s what we come up with. He knew God and the Torah well. He also knew what was going on around him in culture, in politics, in religion, in economics, in his country and in the countries close to him. He was a learned man who knew the lies that were being told in the world around him and who could support or refute what was being said by anyone with God’s Words.

Our willingness to teach our children without cloistering them away or demanding unthinking alegence says to the world that we know that we have the truth.

We can confidently teach our kids this way because we know that truth will stand up to the test and that God is able to keep and guide our children. It’s in doing this that we raise Christ followers – young men and women who seek God, search out truth, study their Bibles, become strong in their Faith, are able to share and defend their Faith and who will make a difference in their world.

When we as Christian parents teach our children a thinking, reasoning Faith we protect them from the doubts and arguements of the world and atheists by equipping them to enguage in the conversation and influence with truth rather than be influenced by lies.

(RICK OSBORNE / Christian Author, Speaker & Bible Teacher)

Recently, there has been a rash of books written by atheists vilifying religion and blaming it for the woes of this world. One best-selling book generated a wave of controversy because it suggested that efforts be made to eradicate religion. The author also takes aim at parents who teach their children religion, calling it a form of child abuse.

Here’s their logic (as far as I can see it). There is no God. Humankind invented God and created religion. Religion is destructive in that it polarizes people, and therefore, causes wars and all sorts of atrocities. The reason religion continues to thrive is that religious parents indoctrinate their children. Therefore, stop allowing the indoctrination of children and the world will become atheistic and wonderfully peaceful.

First of all, let me touch on the things that I agree with. Humanity has suffered much in the name of religion. Also, there are some religious groups in the world that teach violence to their children. There are also many religious parents worldwide that indoctrinate their children, or in other words, tell them what to think instead of teaching them how to think. I agree that all of these things are inappropriate parental behavior.

However, the author in my estimation, has built a very flimsy argument when it comes to Christianity.

Yes, the history of Christianity gets demerits for violence, but to blame present day Christianity for the mistakes of those in the past who did wrong in the name of Christianity is hardly fair. That would be like calling for the end of today’s German culture because at one point it spawned misguided people who caused wars.

The very word Christian means Christ-like or follower of Christ. Everyone who has read the Gospels even once knows that Jesus promoted love, forgiveness, humility and godliness. He did not promote violence, war and insurrection.

The Body of Christ worldwide has come a long way and is a force for good on our planet. When a catastrophe puts people in harms way anywhere in the world, it’s the Christians and Christian relief organizations that dig the deepest and run to care. Millions of Christians and Christian churches worldwide reach out to help and love their families, neighbors and communities every day. These heartfelt charitable acts are a big part of what it is to live a Christian life.

It’s hard to study the history of Western Civilization without seeing the amazingly wonderful impact that Christianity and individual Christians, compelled by their Faith, have had on the world today.

For a great summary read this link:  http://crossandquill.com/journey/?page_id=267

Furthermore, what is it that Christian parents are teaching their children? If you examine the words in red (Jesus’ teaching), you’ll find that a large percentage of what he taught wasn’t about what we believe, but about who we are and how we behave. We teach our children to love, to be caring, kind, generous and considerate of others, to be involved in their communities, to be team players and to be respectful of others who have contrary opinions or beliefs. How can this be damaging to our planet?

Going back to the general arguments about religion being a planet damaging force, studies show that children raised in religion are happier, more other-focused, and less prone to get involved with crime and high-risk behavior. They even tend to exercise more, eat better, and volunteer more frequently.

(Check one of the studies here:  http://www.youthandreligion.org/news/preliminary.html )

A brief study of history will show even the casual reader that things like political agendas, territorial disputes, racial differences and yes, even atheism (the murder of countless religious people in the name of communism, for the sake of the state) have been behind some of the greatest carnages visited on mankind. Should we forbid the teaching of politics, patriotism, property rights, racial uniqueness and atheism?

If your children are old enough, have a chat with them about what the atheists believe and are saying. Perhaps even let them read this blog and help them think it through. Our children need to know their Faith well enough that they can refute this kind of distorted logic when it’s leveled at them.

(RICK OSBORNE / Christian Author, Speaker & Bible Teacher)

I was flying into Chicago on United Airlines shortly after they had completed their new terminal. The captain welcomed us to Chicago and “The New Terminal of Tomorrow.” He went on to explain that everyone who’s tried to catch a connecting flight out of there understands why it’s really called “The Terminal of Tomorrow” – because you might not get on your connecting flight till tomorrow!

I’ve often waited in the Chicago airport.  It’s a very busy place and reminds me of my home: children’s parties, sleepovers, friends coming and going, neighbors calling, extended family dropping by. And there are the departures. The car just doesn’t stop. There are youth groups, lessons of all sorts, sports, school, church, errands to run, and children’s friends to pick up or drive home. Sound familiar?  In the middle of all the flights in and out, once in a while I find a wonderful parenting moment with one of my fellow travelers.

The first time it happened, everyone had flown in and back out of “Osborne O’Hare,” and only my son and I were left. During the next few hours he had his agenda, and I had mine. However, in the middle of that time the two of us needed to sit down and eat a meal. What followed started with me pointing out that it was cool that it was just the two of us guys.

Then we decided to have some guy food and talked about guy things, and we even used some guy table manners (intentional oxymoron). We laughed a lot and afterwards headed back to our own tasks. The meal needed to be prepared anyway, but the time we had was memorable. I now watch for “home alone” moments. My son and I have our “guy time” every time the Osborne Terminal clears out, and I have special dad-and-daughter meals whenever I find myself alone with one of them.
For more quick and easy parenting tips and teachable moments, we recommend “Parenting at the Speed of Life”

(RICK OSBORNE / Christian Author, Speaker & Bible Teacher)

I had the pleasure of knowing Larry Burkett and being able to call him my friend for several years before he left us to be with our Lord. He was a wonderful person, a faithful friend and an awesome man of God. He studied the Bible and understood perhaps better than anyone what God’s Word says and teaches about money.

I met Larry shortly after he wrote ‘The Coming Economic Earthquake’ and although I didn’t understand all of what he was saying about where the economy was going, we talked about something that was near to my heart. Him and his son Allen Burkett Jr. wanted to help parents teach their kids Biblical financial principles so that Christians and the Church in the generations to come could stand strong during tough times.

Larry showed me the conclusions of a nation wide survey that tested the financial IQ of high school seniors. The director of the report summed up the results by saying that our kids were graduating financially illiterate. He also shared with me statistics that showed that 85% of young couples who divorce site financial issues as the reason for their marital breakdown. That discussion led to Larry and I co-writing the book ‘Financial Parenting.’ I also went on to work with both Larry Sr. and Jr. to develop many resources that help parents teach their children financial principles.

The Bible tells us that as parents we are to bring our children up in the instruction of the Lord. The Bible doesn’t just teach us about God, love and salvation. Moses, Solomon, Jesus, Paul and others were all used by God’s Spirit to teach us about stewardship and proper money management. It’s our job as parents to safeguard our children’s future by intentionally bringing them up in these truths.

I don’t know if the ‘Economic Earthquake’ as Larry saw it is here yet but I do know that if we want our kids to survive financially, now and in the future, we need to spend some time teaching them what God’s Word says about money.

The Coming Economic Earthquake, Financial Parenting and the other resources we developed for kids have been selling well and helping families for years but perhaps they are even more relevant and more important now.

Although Larry Burkett is no longer with us, every book he wrote was based on God’s Word and therefore timeless and very relevant today. I highly recommend the following books and any other’s with my friend’s name on them.

(RICK OSBORNE / Christian Author, Speaker & Bible Teacher)

Very few of us would ever seriously ask that same question but how about if we tweaked it slightly, “Why do things that take place in stupid families keep on happening in mine?”

Isn’t that kind of what we’re asking when we get frustrated and throw out questions like, “Why must everything be a fight?” “Can’t anyone clean up after themselves?” “Would it hurt anyone to help out a bit for a change?” “For once, could you please just get along?”

One day many years ago, a friend and fellow worker very politely pointed out that I had a bad habit of interrupting him pretty much whenever he spoke. I admitted I had the problem, apologized and told him that I was going to do something about it. In the days that followed, he politely reminded me time and time again. I responded the same way each time.

A week or two later my friend reached the end of his patience and said, “Every time I talk about this, you say that you’re going to do something about it. Stop putting it off! Make a decision to change and do something about it now.”

I stopped and prayed on the spot for God’s help and I made a decision. Once the decision was made, I began paying attention and I put some effort into learning the skills I needed like really listening and following up with a question.

Albert Einstein once defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

I stopped interrupting however the biggest benefit of my friend’s rebuke was that I later learned how to apply the change principle in my family. Let me give you a brief example.

Once our family was suffering from chronic tornado kitchen syndrome. At first I whined, I complained and I asked the ‘Homer Simpson’ style questions.

My wonderful wife pointed out that perhaps we needed to do something different if we wanted change. (Where had I heard that before?) After some prayer and thought, I taped a note to the kitchen counter and had a family meeting and the fun began. If a single thing was out of place after someone left the kitchen they were on kitchen duty until the next time someone was caught. For awhile everyone was catching everyone else and kitchen duty revolved frequently. Within a few weeks everyone was getting the hang of ‘the game’ and those caught were spending longer periods of time on kitchen duty which made it even more important not to mess up.

What needs to change in your family? Is it the way you communicate with each other, are the kids not helping out, is the sibling rivalry fierce, are you constantly cleaning up after everyone? Here’s what you do, pick one thing that you want to change, pray about it and ask for wisdom. Now go looking for wisdom, search this site or other Christian parenting sites, Google the problem, read a parenting book, anything you need to do to find an idea or solution.

Proverbs 9 says that wisdom has prepared a huge banquet and she’s yelling, “Come and get it.” Finding the wisdom is very seldom difficult once you’ve decided on change. Now have a family meeting and get started.

What I found out was that small efforts at change can yield big results. A simple fun game in the kitchen led to everyone learning skills that began to spread to the rest of the house. My simple decision to stop interrupting people led me to better communication skills and therefore to better and stronger relationships.

The things that happen to stupid people happen to Homer Simpson and us not because we’re stupid but because we keep doing the same things over and over again and that’s stupid. And if we expect any change without changing, according to Einstein, that’s insane. Start today and fight stupidity and insanity with a little change.

For more quick and easy parenting tips for bringing change to your family, we recommend “Parenting at the Speed of Life”

(RICK OSBORNE / Christian Author, Speaker & Bible Teacher)

After having that thought, my mind jumped immediately to the same question that yours just did, “Can someone romance God? Isn’t romance reserved as a wonderful dance between a man and a woman?” So I looked up the word romance. While it is true that the word romance has, for the most part, come to refer to the expression of love between lovers, its origin and breath of meaning reveals other possibilities of use for this powerful word.

The word originally referred to a type of popular stories that were written in the Roman language; fanciful stories of extravagant and surprising adventures, featuring heroes and heroines, stories that carried their readers away. A romance is a story. It seems that over time the word began to be used of the romance or the adventurous love story between a man and a woman. Unfortunately, for many of us, the word has merely come to mean taking our significant other out for a dinner or buying them flowers once in awhile. However, what it should mean to us, is to intentionally weave and build your love relationship into a wonderful lifelong tale of expressed love and shared adventure.

Knowing this and seeing that the word’s definition is not just confined to the love between a man and a woman, I rethought David. His whole life story was a romance, full of adventure and all built on the foundation of his love for God and his expression of that love. David’s life was a romance with God.

Wow! I started thinking right away of how I could romance God. Sing him a song, write him a poem, stop more often to thank him and find more ways to demonstrate my love; unexpected, not required, from-the-heart, just-because-I-love-him ways. I want to intentionally build a love story, an unexpected romance between God and myself.

Now stay with me because my musings took me one step further. Jesus said that when we express our love to others, giving to them, caring for them and helping them, that he takes it as if we were expressing our love for him (Matthew 25:45). One way we can romance God is by loving and serving those around us.

When I think of romancing my wife (and now God as well) I look for thoughtful and unexpected ways to surprise with an expression of my love. These expressions begin to build our story or romance.

So one way to romance God is to look for unexpected ways to surprise those around us with expressions of our love for them. I’m calling it ‘Romancing your family.’ Here’s how; stop at the store and pick up your kid’s favorite chocolate bar, hug them when they walk by, write them a nice note, sit down beside them and be interested in what they’re doing or tell them something you love about them etc. Every thoughtful and unexpected expression of your love will build your relationships and begin weaving a wonderful story out of each of them.

My wife has called me a romantic but I want to take this to a whole new level. As I live my life romancing God directly and by loving others, my prayer is that God would weave each effort together so that one day the story of my life can be looked at like David’s and called a romance.

What can you do today to romance God by surprising each member of your family with an unexpected expression of your love?

For more quick and easy parenting tips for bringing change to your family, we recommend “Parenting at the Speed of Life”

(RICK OSBORNE / Christian Author, Speaker & Bible Teacher)

I remember hearing this saying when I was young and my Granny was still alive. I remember wondering why (if this saying were true as a fact as well as a metaphor) she would hang her unmentionables on our clothes line when she visited. Now I should mention that my Gran was a wonderful lady but she was a very large woman and her private garments would attract attention. However, for some reason she seemed oblivious to this fact.

I’m telling this story because I believe that somehow, somewhere along the way, we’ve adopted the idea that what happens behind closed family doors is no one’s business but our own. Which has again somehow led to the idea that we are free to behave in ways in our homes that we would not act in public.

Although I’ve seen this in many Christian homes, it is not God’s idea of how a Christian home should function. Being a Christian is about who we are and who we’re becoming, it’s not just about what we believe. As we submit our lives to God, he by his grace and the work of the Holy Spirit begins (and never stops) to change our hearts and that change should be reflected in our behavior. The first place that our changed behavior should show up is in our closest relationships – in our family relationships.

The Apostle Paul wrote these words. “Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.” (1 Timothy 5:1, 2)

Notice that Paul assumes that our best behavior would be used on our family members and he therefore exhorts Timothy (and us) to treat other Christians how we treat our family. Would it go over well if you treated the people at church the same way you’ve allowed yourself to treat your spouse and/or children from time to time in the privacy of your own home?

In the same letter to Timothy, Paul outlines the qualifications for leaders in the church and reveals that what goes on at home either qualifies or disqualifies you for leadership. Would others question your ability to minister to others if they saw a video (taken secretly) of you at home?

The only Biblical application I can see for ‘Don’t air our family’s dirty laundry’ is that we shouldn’t gossip about our family members or maliciously share their mistakes with others. Our homes should be a safe place to grow and make mistakes but it was never meant to be a place where we can behave badly because we’ve been led to believe that a Las Vegas like slogan applies, ‘what happens at home stays at home’.

Try this, next time you’re reading the Bible, with each instruction ask yourself “Am I living this at home?” If you’re not, stop and pray and ask for God’s help. Also start checking your home behavior, if you’re about to scream or get unreasonable stop and think if you’d speak that way to your pastor. If you’re doing something that you wouldn’t want to talk about Sunday morning then think about why you’d even consider behaving that way in front of the ones you love the most.

Perhaps my Granny knew this to be true and was reversing the metaphor when she hung out her large unmentionables to dry. Or perhaps she just wanted dry unmentionables. I’ll ask her when I get to heaven.

For more practical and Biblical Christian Parenting ideas we recommend the Christian resource, ‘Teaching Kids About God’.

(RICK OSBORNE / Christian Author, Speaker & Bible Teacher)

In the very beginning of creation God announced that it wasn’t good for man to be alone. That announcement led to the first marriage, the first family, the first friends and the first community.

God created us to function in and be blessed by relationships. Not only in relationships with others but also in a relationship with him.

Jesus stated that the two greatest commandments were to love God and also to love others. Since God is love and therefore void of selfishness, his two greatest commandments should carry with them the greatest secrets of an awesome life and they do. Having a wonderful growing relationship with God and wonderful growing relationships with others is truly the biggest key to an awesome life. Loving and being loved.God wants us to focus on and be blessed by developing and strengthening our relationships and one way that God teaches us is by example. Jesus said that if you saw him you saw the Father and the writer of the book of Hebrews wrote that Jesus was the visible image of the invisible God.

So what can we learn from Jesus’ example. He washed his disciples feet at the last supper, a servants job, and told his disciples (us) to follow his example. He laid his life down for his family, his friends, his people, everyone. He not only gave up his life but he also lived a sacrificial life, ministering to, loving, teaching, helping, healing and giving to those around him.

In looking at these truths I’ve realized that we can gain huge insights into how relationships can be strengthened and our relational skills improved just by looking at how God relates to us and how he asks us to relate to him. Specifically, since God invented parents and also tells us that he is our heavenly parent, I’ve seen how we can learn much from God’s example that can help us be better parents.

Here’s one simple example that changed the way I spoke with my children (and others) and made a huge difference in my relationships.

In Psalm 100:4 the psalmist tells us to enter God’s gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Lets just look at the first part, enter his gates with thanksgiving. When we begin to speak with God about anything, he instructs us to start out by thanking him. Why, because he’s stuck on himself and his ego needs a boost? Hardly, he’s perfect and he doesn’t change. God is love, this instruction is for our good not his. So break it down, what happens when we start our prayer with honest, personal thanksgiving? It puts things in perspective and gets us focusing on God’s goodness and ability instead of our problems and thereby increases our Faith and expectancy.

Now how can we translate that relational principle to our other relationships? Picture the last time you were annoyed at your kids or your spouse, how did it go? Often what we do when something needs to be communicated with those around us is that we just jump right in and start with our agenda. If it’s something negative, the person we are aiming at will tend to become immediately defensive because they feel attacked and not affirmed. Once the object of our verbal missiles gets defensive, we up the ante to prove the validity of our complaint or issue and often an argument is born.

What if we were able to start each conversation by entering our children’s gates (their presence, interrupting their thoughts with ours) with thanksgiving. Instead of, “I thought I told you to do the dishes” how about, “Sweetheart, you’re a wonderful son and always quite helpful. thank you! I was just wondering when you were going to get the dishes done because I’d prefer it if they were done more sooner than later.”

Two things happen when you approach other people’s gates with thanksgiving. First you change your focus. Instead of just stewing on what’s bugging you, you’ve reminded yourself of good things which make you happy in your relationship. This will take the edge and accusation out of your voice. Next, your child will have no need to feel defensive because your concern has been brought to him on a pillow of love and support. Now he’ll tend to want to affirm your belief in him and respond in kindness. Instead of an argument starting that could tear down your relationship, your relationship will be strengthened.

It’s a simple concept and although it takes awhile to become consistent with, you will see a huge change in your children’s ability to listen every time you enter their gates with thankfulness.

In my last post, we talked about how God’s original parent training program was that one generation teach the next how to parent God’s way. It’s our job as parents to not only learn how to parent God’s way and to do it effectively but also to teach our children how to be a parent while we are parenting them.

This sounds more daunting then it actually is. In reality, parenting while teaching to parent is the easiest and most effective way of parenting.

When we send our children to school, they go knowing that they need to go through the learning process and do well so that one day they’ll graduate. They know because we tell them. From there we encourage them by telling them that great marks lead to better post secondary education options and those options can lead to better career opportunities etc. We keep them going by helping them to understand and to take on the goals as their own.

If our children think the only goal of parenting is for them to try and have fun and for us to try and stop them, they don’t see the reward in the process and our task will be difficult. However, if we talk to them not only about the benefits to their life for doing things the right way, but also about how cooperating with the parenting process and learning how it works will help make them great parents, then they’ll be able to see a bigger purpose and a greater reward.

With my kids, I’d always break it down. I’d tell them what my role as a father looked like and what I was responsible to God for. I’d also tell them what their part as a kid was before God and what the purpose or outcome of the whole parent/child relationship is meant to be.

It’s quite simple. A parent’s job is to consistently and diligently instruct train and discipline their children so that by the time they leave home they are mature Christian adults prepared to work, live, love and parent successfully on their own. Each child’s job is to cooperate with their parents in the process and do everything they can to help themselves reach that same goal.

I found that this idea of working together towards the same goal always made things easier when things went off track. Instead of locking horns with my kids over an issue (say like homework) I’d merely sit them down and talk about our mutual goal and what we both could do in this situation to work together, solve the problem and eventually reach the goal. It was always more peaceful and my kids would respond much better than they would if they thought that I was merely trying to force my agenda on them.

If both parent and child understand and agree on their roles, the process and the goal, then it’s easier to work together and the parenting process becomes more of a joy. As you do this, the parenting process also becomes transparent and your child learns how to be a parent as they are being parented.

Now I said that the parenting books, courses etc, that I write and advocate should just be a booster shot to this process. Although I believe this ‘parent raising parents’ method is God’s primary parent training program, it’s not the only Biblical process for parent training. None of us know it all and we all have different teaching styles, personality types etc. that work better with some people than others. Therefore, it’s always helpful to get outside help from other parents, grandparents, family, church community and family ministries. The Bible teaches that in our church communities, the older women should teach the younger women (Titus 2:4). In other words, those with godly wisdom and experience in the community should help in the process of preparing the next generation to take over.

Christian parenting books, classes, courses and wisdom from others are all needed but they should come along side and help a young parent who has been taught to be a great parent while being parented.

If you haven’t started doing this yet, sit down with your child or children and discuss it and then start. I think you’ll find that it makes a world of difference.

For more practical and Biblical Christian Parenting ideas we recommend the Christian resource, ‘The Spiritual Growth of Children’.

(RICK OSBORNE / Christian Author, Speaker & Bible Teacher)

For those of you who read my blogs or my books, you know that I’m passionate about encouraging parents to apply themselves to learning how to parent. Parenting is not merely intuitive and it’s not only bad parents who need parenting books and courses, it’s all parents.

If you asked me to determine if a certain couple were great parents or not, I wouldn’t look first at the results but at the efforts they were making to learn and grow in the art of parenting. If you know how to get the right information and effectively and humbly apply it, the results will eventually follow. If you think you’re getting by but you’re not learning, then you’ll eventually come up against a problem that you don’t know how to solve properly and that will mess up your results.

I advocate parenting books, classes and courses but actually those resources should be mere booster shots that come along and support God’s original parent training program. When God spoke to Abraham and called him to teach his children after him to follow the Lord, in context (Genesis 18:18, 19), he wasn’t talking about just Abraham’s immediate children but generations of children. When God had Moses tell the Israelites to make sure that they taught their children to follow the Lord (Deuteronomy 6), again the context was that each generation pass it on to the next.

As an example of how to pass something from generation to generation, let’s look at farming. For centuries, farmers have passed the farm down to their children. How does that happen successfully? What if one generation farmed and got the kids to help from time to time and then one day they just handed them the keys to everything and moved to Florida. Either the farm would be sold or it would probably go under. In order for the farm to be passed on successfully, the parents must not only farm well but also teach their children everything they know about farming as they grow up, gradually preparing them for the task. God’s original parent training program is simply this, parents need to do everything they can to bring their children up well AND they need to all the while be teaching their children how to parent properly themselves.

That’s why I say that parenting books and courses should be booster shots. It’s our job as parents to teach our children how to do one of the most important tasks they’ll ever undertake, raising children. Yes, we train by example but that’s not enough. We need to understand what we teach our children and why we’re teaching it to them. We need to understand the discipline, instruction and training process and explain it to our children as we go. For those of you who are feeling that this sounds daunting it’s not, it actually makes the job easier. I’ll explain how in my next blog.

For more practical and Biblical Christian Parenting ideas we recommend the Christian resource, ‘The Spiritual Growth of Children’.

(RICK OSBORNE / Christian Author, Speaker & Bible Teacher)