Shepherding a Child's Heart

Godward Focus
Notice that obedience is a response to God. Children must learn
that they have been made for God. They have a duty to him. He has
the right to rule them. They owe him obedience.
Your children will never submit to you without understanding this
truth. They will never see living in terms of bringing glory to God.
They will be self-absorbed—the prime objects of worship in their

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own world.
Submission to earthly authority is a specific application of being a
creature under God’s authority. Submission to God’s authority may
seem distant and theoretical. Mom and Dad, however, are present.
Obedience to God is reflected in a child’s growing understanding of
obedience to parents.
Acquaint your children with authority and submission when they
are infants. This training starts the day you bring them home from the
hospital.
These lessons, firmly established in early years, will yield fruit
throughout childhood. Establish these principles and you will
eliminate the need to have repeated contests over authority.
With our first teen-age driver, we were concerned about the car
becoming a social environment that was outside parental control. We
established clear guidelines. There were rules against having
passengers who had not been approved by Mom and Dad. There were
also rules against changes in destination. We, of course, welcomed
phone calls of appeal. Plans can always change; we just didn’t want
any surprises. We were pleased to get occasional calls to change
arrangements and to learn of many times when our son did not take
passengers or make runs that had not been approved in advance. He
could have done so without our knowledge, but he didn’t. We had a
teen driver we could trust because of the lessons learned in early
childhood.