Text: Genesis 19:30-38
Memory verse:
“Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Proverbs 22:6
Charles Spurgeon once said, “If we never have headaches through rebuking our children, we shall have plenty of heartaches when they grow up.” Children don’t naturally imbibe godliness, they must be consciously trained and instructed. They must be disciplined through rebuke, reprove and correction. Discipline delivers a child from destruction (Prov 19:18). God commands that we diligently and purposefully teach our children. “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” (Deut 6:7).
You must intentionally teach them to love God, if not, the world will teach them otherwise. You must teach them godliness and positive values; chastity and manners. While God had confidence in Abraham about the training of his children, it wasn’t so with Lot (Gen 18:19). Though Lot was daily distressed in his soul as he saw the wickedness in the land, yet he was so engulfed in the business of Sodom and Gomorrah that he couldn’t nurture his family in godly values (Gen 19:1; 2 Pet 2:8). The financial gain was so paramount to him that he couldn’t lose any time to instruct his children. Therefore, since the father couldn’t do the needful, it was easy for his wife, children and their families to accept the values of the land as the ideal. His sons in law perished in the fire mocking the great salvation, his wife became a pillar of salt loving the world and his daughters got their father drunk and committed incest with him!
Lot is an example of today’s believers who get so busy seeking after gold at the expense of their family’s salvation and of parents who permit in their children the ungodly acts they complain about in other peoples’ children.
Prayer points
1. Father, help the fathers and mothers not to fail in raising for You a godly generation in Jesus name.
2. Father, let not the fathers and mothers seek after gold at the expense of their families in Jesus name.
Today’s declarations
1. Training and instruction of children must be intentional and purposeful.
2. If parents don’t teach their children godly values and morals, the world will teach them it’s own.
Contact: pastor@thf.org.ng