Shepherding a Child's Heart

Shepherding Your Children in Godly Attitudes

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A primary concern of this book is the Godward orientation of your
children. Shepherding that relationship is one of the primary tasks of
parenting.
Teaching to submit to authority presents you with beautiful
opportunities to shepherd your child’s relationship to God. God
commands children to obey Mom and Dad. That is God’s directive.
Your children must be brought to see that living in God’s world as
creatures means submission to that good and wise God in all things.
The call to submit to Mommy and Daddy is a call to trust God rather
than “self.” “Self” tells your child not to submit. “Self” says, “Do
what you want, when you want, and how you want.”
What a wonderful opportunity to talk to children about the
rebellion of their hearts! Show them how they are inclined to disobey
and turn irrationally from what is good for them. Confront them with
their weakness and inability to obey God without God’s work within.
What happens to the child who becomes persuaded that obedience is
good for him? Do his problems with submission melt away? No, no
more than yours do when you know what you should do. Doing what
he knows is good may still elude him. This, too, takes him to God. He
must learn to get hold of God for help and strength to obey.
The gospel seems irrelevant to the smug child who isn’t required
to do anything he does not want to do. It seems irrelevant to the
arrogant child who has been told all his life how wonderful he is. But
the gospel has great relevance for the child who is persuaded that God
calls him to do something that is not native to his sinful heart—to
joyfully and willingly submit to the authority of someone else! Only
the power of the gospel can give a willing heart and the strength to
obey.