I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. 3 John 3

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. 3 John 3

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.   3 John 3

I don’t know if the Apostle John had a family, but it’s clear that he saw those whom he ministered to as his spiritual children, and in his third epistle, he expresses the desire of every Christian parent, to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

Parenting is hard. (Thank you Pastor Obvious.) But parenting is a privilege and a delight! As people in love with Jesus and eager to fulfill his great commission—to make disciples of all nations—we recognize that for those of us who are parents, our first and most important responsibility is the discipleship of our children. This makes the task doubly hard, for the job is not just to get them through life until adulthood when they become productive members of society. Our responsibility, so far as it depends on us, is to raise them in the knowledge and instruction of the Lord. It is to seek to make them lifelong disciples of the King of kings, and Lord of lords. What makes this so hard, is that only disciples can make disciples. Our endeavor to make disciples of our children, has the prerequisite that we too are in pursuit of Christ, that we love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and that we are daily taking up our cross and following him.

But, praise the Lord, what God has called us to do, he enables us to do. By the leading and empowering of the Holy Spirit, and the resources of the word, prayer and the local church body, he has given us all that we need to be the parents that he wants us to be.

My wife (whom I credit for much of what I’ve learned about parenting), read a recent blog post by Harriet Connor on The Gospel Coalition, called “Hard Truths for Modern Parents.” It’s not long, and I think it is worth your time to read.  https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/hard-truths-modern-parents/

Also, I would like to take this time to re-recommend Paul David Tripp’s excellent book, Parenting, The 14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family. Tripp’s book is quite simply the best book I’ve read on parenting (apart from Scripture—but that should go without saying).  https://www.paultripp.com/products/parenting-book

For the sake of his name,

Pastor Dave