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“Seven Things Parents Should Give Their Children”

Allen Dvorak
10/06/24 - Sun PM

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Wanna extend a warm welcome to all who are here this evening, particularly those of you who may be visiting with us this evening.

We are grateful for your presence and it is our prayer and hope that as we worship together this evening, as we've already begun, that it will be encouraging to you that you'll be aided in your service to God.

In 1983 our eldest son, David was born, he was born in the early hours just shortly after midnight.

And we went to the Jewish Hospital there in Cincinnati where he was born, where incidentally our other son, Jonathan was born as well.

And after he was born, few hours later, David and Debbie stayed in the hospital, but I went home and I remember so clearly walking through the house in the early morning hours of that day thinking to myself, wow.

Now I'm responsible for two lives.

Of course, I've been responsible for both of those lives for some time.

But the birth of David really brought it home to me, the responsibility that I had both as a husband and now a father to this newborn child.

Two years later, Jonathan was born and I thought, yeah, just another kid.

The gecko lizard is a really cute insurance icon.

You know, gecko is, uh, representing an insurance company, but gecko lizards are bad parents.

They lay their eggs and the female goes off and leaves those eggs.

And even when the young are born, there's no care for the young.

In fact, adult geckos will sometimes cannibalize their own young.

Now, hopefully, as human parents, we have a higher level of parenting than the gecko lizard, we of course, want to provide for our Children.

We want to protect them in every way possible.

We want to try to ensure that they have everything that they need.

But unfortunately, some parents don't seem to understand what their Children really need or at least not what they need the most.

And so this evening, I want to talk about seven things that parents or that we as those related to Children that we can give to our Children.

What is it that Children really need to prosper as adults?

You, you're probably aware that a lot of adults, a lot of parents will shower their Children with all kinds of physical things.

They take them on the nicest vacations and they wear the latest styles of clothes and perhaps have the latest electronic devices as they get older.

Even young Children sometimes have electronic devices that those of my generation would never have imagined as Children.

Of course, Children are happy to have the latest of everything and to have plenty of these things.

And I'm not suggesting that that's necessarily a bad thing to provide nice things for our kids.

I don't believe that, but I do believe that when parents focus primarily on those physical things, things that will obviously make their Children happy when you give gifts to your Children and you provide them with all kinds of toys, they love that, but that's not really the most important thing to provide for them.

In fact, even though this physical focus requires uh substantial financial assets, sometimes if you're gonna go to various places for vacations, the fact of the matter is it's easier to buy things than it is to mold the character of a young person.

The Bible tells us that parents are stewards over Children.

Interesting fact.

Did you know that the word Stewart originally comes from the word sty ward.

A Stewart was originally one who kept the sty, the pig sty.

Now some of you are saying, yeah, I could see how parents could be stewards of Children because sometimes children's rooms resemble pig sty.

But the Bible says that Children are a heritage of the Lord, that they are like an inheritance that God has given us and we are to take care of them.

We're stewards over these uh new lives, our Children in Ephesians, the six chapter and verse four, the Apostle Paul told us something about what parents need to be doing in terms of their stewardship with Children.

Fathers do not provoke your Children to anger, but by contrast, bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Well, what's involved in the discipline and instruction of the Lord?

What is it that parents need to teach their Children?

What character traits do parents need to encourage in their Children?

We have a number of young married couples in this congregation who are, I'm assuming probably in a few years and maybe even earlier than that are going to start their family and they're going to be making these kinds of decisions.

They're going to be answering these questions.

What do we need to teach our Children?

What do we need to encourage?

What do we need to discourage in these young lives?

And there are a number of other families who are a little farther along in that process.

Your Children are already here and growing and maybe even getting into the teenage years.

And if so, if they're in the teenage years, you need to understand that your time with them, the time that's available for you to mold their characters to, to try to influence them so that they can become adults that are prospering and able to function well in our society and specifically to serve God, your time is limited, very limited.

And then of course, there several of us who've already seen our Children leave the nest and now we have grandchildren.

And as much as possible, we would like to be involved in the lives of our grandchildren.

And so for all of these groups and including you guys who are still looking for wives, this information is important so that you can understand what your responsibilities are as stewards of your Children.

Well, one way to answer those questions, what do parents need to teach their Children?

What do we need to encourage in our Children?

One way to define that training is to determine what the character of a faithful Christian looks like.

Is that not really the sum total of what we're trying to do with our Children is that we're trying to teach them to love God and to serve him to glorify God with their lives.

And so I want to say to you, I want to talk to you about seven things that parents need to give should give their Children.

This may not be, I suspect strongly that it's not an all inclusive list or a comprehensive list.

But I think these are all important things and in many cases, fundamental things that we need to be teaching our Children.

And the first one I would suggest is respect for authority.

One wit made this comment.

He said the thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their Children.

Wait a second.

I thought Children were supposed to obey their parents.

That's what the Bible says.

Children obey your parents in the Lord.

For this is right.

Ephesians six and verse one, I'm not sure that Children naturally respect the authority of their parents.

They're going to try to do things and go ways and, and act in ways that parents don't want.

And parents are going to have to exert their authority as those who have been entrusted with these lives.

Our Children, we need to teach Children respect for authority.

You know, it's interesting that throughout life, we will sustain relationships in which there's an authority that we need to submit to.

Whether we're talking about the home to begin with or whether we're talking about school where teachers are in control of the students or whether we're talking about government where there are laws that are enforced by the governing authorities or whether we're talking about God and his supreme authority over us.

But all of that, all of that our relationship to authority, it begins in the home.

That's where Children first experience authority, respect for authority in the home prepares Children to respect authority in other areas.

Is it any wonder sometimes that Children act out at school?

They haven't been taught to respect the authority of others who are in charge?

They don't respect the authority sometimes of their parents.

And is it any surprise that sometimes young people grow up?

They don't respect the authority of God.

They go off and do their own thing.

Children who have trouble with authority are ill prepared to be faithful Christians.

Did you hear when I said, Children who struggle, who have trouble with authority are ill prepared to be faithful Christians.

You can't be a faithful Christian without respecting the authority of the Lord.

Well, how early should we start with that?

About the time that that child comes into your home from the hospital or in whatever way, adoption as early as possible, even very young infants can understand that there are things that are encouraged and things that are discouraged and we don't have any trouble with that. Right?

When we're talking about electrical outlets, we won't allow our Children to do certain things.

We enforce our authority for the good of the child.

And may I suggest to you that parents who teach their Children respect for authority, that's not self serving, that's for the child's own good, not just protecting them from physical danger when they're very young as authoritarian parents, we make sure they don't go into danger.

But so that later on in life, they don't suffer the consequences of hitting their head against the wall of authority in various relationships.

Oh, and by the way, Romans 13 1 talks about that.

Well, here's the second thing that I would suggest we need to give our Children and that is a biblical moral foundation, including in that personal integrity.

I'm gonna talk about that almost as a separate thing, but we can begin to teach our Children biblical morality even very young.

In fact, I would suggest to you that the concept of modesty, modesty needs to be taught at an early age.

Over the years.

I have known a number of mothers who thought it was cute to dress their young girls in clothes that barely covered their undergarments and people think, oh, well, they're just little girls.

They're little girls who grow up to be big girls.

And if we're not instilling in them, the concept of modesty when they're young, by the time they hit the teenage years, good luck with that because they've already formulated their perspective about such things as purity and modesty.

It's much easier to teach modesty at an early age than to try to change those habits later.

We need to be teaching our Children in this biblically moral foundation to be careful in their speech.

Jesus had some sobering things in Matthew chapter 12 in verses 36 and 343.

He says, I tell you on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak.

Let me ask you a question in the course of your lifetime.

How many careless words have you spoken?

How many things have you said without really thinking about the consequence of it or perhaps whether it was acceptable or unacceptable?

I dare say that probably most of us have done that lots of times we talk a lot and sometimes we don't think about what we're saying how it might reflect on us or how, whether it would be acceptable to God or not, but we can teach our Children to be careful about the things that they say.

I applaud those parents who tell their Children that is not acceptable in our home.

We don't talk that way to each other.

I got to tell you just a quick illustration of that.

It just hit me this evening.

Uh Graham and Vivie were riding back to services with us.

They spent the afternoon with Papa and Didi.

And so Debbie got into the car and she was uh burdened with eggs and drink and different things.

And I said, you know, I should have helped you with that and she said you sure should have.

And I said, shut up, you whiner.

And from the back seat, what I heard is mama doesn't let us say that at home.

I said wher no, the other thing, of course, I was kidding.

I was kidding.

Ok. I don't tell Debbie to shut up.

But, but it just, it hit me that they're being taught.

There are certain things you just, it's not appropriate to say those to other people.

And so we can teach our Children to be careful of their speech the way that they talk with others, we need to teach them to avoid profanity.

Have you ever had this experience?

Your child comes home from school and they use a word or words that you know, you never taught them because that language doesn't get used in your home.

But they heard it at school and they're repeating it because it's the way the other kids talk happened to anybody happened to my parents.

I was the one came home from school and I said something.

Where did you hear that?

Well, obviously not in my home, but I was repeating what somebody else had said, didn't even understand the significance of it at the time.

Although I was educated about that.

Colossians three and verse eight says, but now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

We can teach our Children at a very early age to be careful what they say and to avoid gutter language.

I don't know about you.

But it seems to me that our society that the level of appropriateness has dropped to where now even young kids are using language that adults used to not use in public.

There's been kind of a coarsening of our public dialogue and that just suggests that parents are going to have a bigger job to teach their Children about what kind of language is appropriate.

Sometimes parents will laugh at the cute little stories that uh young people tell.

Well, it's not really true but the child embellishes things.

The problem with that is that those cute little stories of early youth graduate into big ugly lies that hurt and destroy the Bible tells us that verbal dishonesty is condemned in Ephesians. Four.

Paul said the new man puts away falsehood and each one of us needs to speak truth with his neighbor for we're members one of another.

Now, I believe Paul is talking to Christians about the way they treat one another.

But Children learn that in the home.

In fact, I would suggest to you that one of the most important lessons that parents can teach their Children is you always tell the truth.

I hasten to point out young people that doesn't mean you have to say everything you think.

But whatever you say needs to be true.

Honesty, Children need to be taught about honesty.

They need to be taught that one lie, often begets another lie.

You end up telling a lie to protect yourself and then you have to tell another lie to cover that lie.

And then perhaps another lie and sometimes lives are destroyed by the secrets that people are covering up with their lies.

Children need to be taught that a known liar isn't trusted even when he or she tells the truth.

Well, I can't believe you don't believe me.

Well, you lied to me yesterday.

So now today I wonder, are you telling me the truth?

Now, I would say to parents that you want to teach your Children to be an open book when they're young because as they grow older, it will be more difficult to know what the truth is if they choose not to share it with you, you understand what I'm saying?

That as Children get older and as they begin to kind of stretch their, their wings in preparation for leaving the home, they're going to be more and more independent.

You're not going to have the same kind of supervision that you had when they were very young when you could perhaps, uh, you know, search out the lies because you're with them all the time.

But the time will come when Children will be out and they can lie about what they're doing in other places and you may not have any way of knowing.

Um but Children need to be taught that you always tell the truth.

And that way as they get older, their lives are an open book to their parents.

The Bible says Paul, writing to Timothy that young people need to flee youthful lusts fornication.

He writes to the Corinthians is a sin against one's own body.

It is unfortunate that we have to talk with our young people at younger ages now about things that used to be topics for adults or at least those who were old enough to be married.

But we live in an increasingly open and sensual sexualized society and please understand that your Children are going to learn about these things.

And if you're not teaching them, they will learn about it from people who are not going to share your moral values.

In fact, unfortunately, sometimes those kinds of things are mandated in public schools and Children are being taught things that really are inappropriate for their age, if ever appropriate impurity and sensuality.

Two things that are described in Galatians five verses 19 through 21 as works of the flesh.

Those words describe perfectly pornography.

Pornography is impurity and sensuality.

And we live in a digital society where virtually any device that has access to the internet becomes a conduit for pornography.

And parents who don't teach their Children that that's something you need to leave alone, that it's unhealthy, it's sinful, it's wicked.

They're setting their Children up to explore things that they will struggle with perhaps for the rest of their lives, teach your Children, give them a biblical moral foundation, teach them the sinfulness and the danger of illicit drugs and you need to start young because the devil does.

Drugs are in some of the earliest schools.

Now, it's incredible.

The statistics that you can read about that parents are working against culture.

Our culture has become more and more opposed to biblical morality.

And so we need to understand as parents that we've got to be aggressive in opposing some of the things that our Children will be exposed to.

And the reason we teach them, this is because Christians, Christians must be Holy Paul said or excuse me, Peter said in First Peter 115, he quotes from the Old Testament be holy for, I am holy.

If we're trying to educate our Children, we're trying to train them to be the kind of people who will respond to the gospel and who will serve God with all of their heart, soul and mind.

And we need to teach them about holiness, about purity.

We need to teach our Children to have a sense of responsibility.

Some parents offer excuses for any failure or misbehavior of their Children.

And if you don't believe that, talk to a teacher in a public school and they will tell you how often it is that the parents come in to talk to the teacher blazing.

Why my little Johnny, he never does anything wrong.

Well, little Johnny was in the wrong but parents will defend their Children regardless of what uh what they've done.

I, I hate that Jonathan's here this evening because I'm gonna use my kids as illustrations.

But, you know, occasionally our Children were sometimes homeschooled, particularly during the time we're in Brazil and then sometimes in the public schools and occasionally one or the other would come home and say, you know, they were complaining about what had happened at school today and the teacher she did and I, you know, I would sometimes say, well, we'll handle that.

I'll go talk to the teacher.

Oh, no, no, don't do that.

Dad don't, don't go to the school.

Oh, ok.

So the suspicion, the suspicion sometimes was that maybe not all the details had come out in the story from one side of the equation.

We need to be careful about defending our Children even when they are in danger of misbehavior.

Children quickly learn to make excuses if we excuse them for their misbehavior, why it's so and so's fault or it wasn't my fault.

Somebody else did blame the other kids.

Parents need to teach their Children to accept responsibility for their actions.

And again, if we can't do that, if we don't learn to do that in our own lives, then we will not be able to be faithful Christians because faithful Christians have to understand the law of cause and effect actions have consequences, fundamental truth.

But we are dealing with lots of people in the world who believe that they can act with impunity.

There are no consequences to what they do.

We need to teach our Children that when you make choices and when you behave in a certain way, there are consequences to that.

You know, sometimes that's difficult.

It's difficult because we want to protect our Children.

We really don't want them to hurt or to feel bad, but we are hurting our Children.

If we don't teach them that they have to accept responsibility for their actions, we need to give our Children a sense of gratitude.

How many times have you heard a parent say to a small child?

Did you say thank you for that gift?

Did you say Thank you.

Thank you for what somebody did.

I've heard that all my life and I think that's a good thing.

I think parents are, are, are saying, reminding Children you need to be grateful for this particular thing.

But I'm suggesting that thankfulness ought to be the general tenor of our lives, not just thankful on some occasion where something good has happened to me or somebody has given me some sort of gift, but thankfulness ought to permeate our lives.

And there are thousands of ways that parents can teach Children about thankfulness.

Frankly, the general tenor of a child's life will reflect what they've seen in the home.

And so as parents, we need to make sure that Children understand that we are thankful.

It's surprising to me how many times the Bible talks about thankfulness.

I'm just going to share a few with you first Thessalonians five verses 16 through 18, rejoice.

Always pray without ceasing give thanks in all circumstances. Wow.

Are there some circumstances where we're not really inclined to be thankful, things have happened to us and and we're maybe upset about them or that they're not going to be for our, our good.

We, we think hard to be thankful in times like that, be give thanks in all circumstances.

I I thought Tim was going to preach my lesson this morning.

He made some good comments about Colossians three.

So let me just say amen to what Tim said and note that in verses 15 through 17.

How many times thanks or giving thanks is, is found in those verses and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful.

Just straight statement.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another.

And all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God, even as we sing, it is with thankfulness in our hearts and whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God, the father through him.

I think thankfulness ought to be the general tenor of our lives.

The parallel passage in Ephesians five and verse 20. Giving.

Thanks always and for everything to God, the father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As parents.

Are we teaching our Children that as grandparents are we teaching our Children that we need to be thankful all the time.

In Philippians.

The fourth chapter, the apostle Paul again says, do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.

Let your requests be made known to God.

The word prayer is generic.

It could involve uh praise, it could involve supplication or request.

But the word supplication speaks of uh asking either on behalf of yourself or maybe even more specifically on behalf of somebody else.

Prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving.

I'm reminded how often we ask, please Lord do this, please do that.

Do we give thanks for what the Lord has done for us.

I think that's important.

Well, another thing we need to give our Children is a good work ethic.

Someone says, well, that doesn't seem real biblical.

I mean, work ethic.

The scriptures teach us to work in first Thessalonians four Paul says in verse 11 and to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands as we instructed you so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

In second Thessalonians three, there apparently was some sort of problem at Thessalonica with some who were unwilling to work.

And so Paul says, if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat for.

We hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies, they're meddling in other people's affairs.

Now, such persons, we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

Unfortunately, sometimes the influence of affluence is laziness and even a sense of entitlement.

We can give so much to our Children.

We can provide so much for them that they really don't have to work for that.

In some cases, we can create in them, the sense that they deserve everything that they want and people should give it to them and I'll tell you we're setting our Children up for a lot of pain and suffering.

If we do that, it's better to teach Children to work than to try to leave them enough.

I can't tell you how many times I've read stories about the parent who maybe at the neglect of his Children, he has been wildly successful in business.

He's created an empire, a great sum of, of wealth, assets, of a great nature and leaves it to his Children and they fritter away in their youth long before they ever get to the age of retirement because they don't appreciate what they've been given.

They didn't have to work for it.

And so they don't understand how to use money.

Proverbs chapter 20 verses 30 to 34 talks about someone observing the field of the slugger.

He's going to have problems.

We need to teach our Children to work.

I don't want to say I don't want to generalize about any group of people, but it does seem to me that it's harder to find people who are willing to work and to work hard and to persevere in tasks until they finish them.

Is it important to teach our Children to finish, to persevere?

Uh I just preached a lesson recently about the need for endurance in Christians.

We can't just start this journey of a Christian's life.

We have to finish that.

We have to finish successfully.

The child who grows up never finishing anything difficult is destined for a hard life.

Christianity demands, persistence, secular jobs, demand, persistence, marriage demands persistence.

If our Children grow up believing that as soon as something gets difficult, forget that I'm moving on to the next thing.

Those are people who are going to have hard lives, unsuccessful lives as adults teach your Children to work and your Children will not appreciate that.

May I just say that your Children are going to think that they're in bondage?

My mom is a slave driver.

My dad is a master of slaves.

I remember thinking when I was a kid now, I'm sorry, dad's here.

I remember thinking when I was a kid, will it ever end?

There was always something to do.

There was always work.

It was in the gardens, it was lawn mowing, it was other things.

Of course, as a child, I wanted to have fun.

I wanted to play with friends.

I wanted to do things other than working.

And what I didn't understand is that I was being taught a very important lesson and that is that there are things you have to do.

You have to, as I tell the boys, sometimes you have to take care of business.

So we need to teach our Children to work and they won't like it.

They'll perhaps think that it's unfair, but it's for their good.

We need to teach our Children to be unselfish and that's a very broad kind of concept.

Because it has so many different applications.

Uh, I'm talking about an unselfish concern for others.

All of us are born selfish.

Would you agree with that statement?

I think it's true.

Any of you as a child, you know, come home from the hospital or you're just a few days old and you're hungry.

And you said to your mom, I really would like to eat right now.

But whenever it's convenient for you or my diaper is dirty and needs to be changed.

But I know you're busy.

I know you've had a hard day.

I'll just wait until it's convenient for you.

When a baby is unhappy you're gonna know about it.

Isn't that right?

Jared?

And all of us have experienced that Children are born selfish in the sense that they're consumed with their own needs.

They're not particularly concerned about whether it's convenient for you or not as a parent or somebody else who's caring for the child.

But hopefully, as we mature, we learn to become more unselfish, to think more about the needs of others.

As Paul would say, putting others before ourselves, making them more important than ourselves.

He says in Philippians, the second chapter in Colossians three, I want you to notice the words here and how many of them relate to this idea of unselfishness.

This is Colossians three verse 12 put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts that says something about the way that we treat others kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another.

And if anyone had, if one has a complaint against another forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

We could go on and on about selfishness, putting ourselves ahead of others.

But we need to be teaching our Children to think about others first.

Because selfishness is a destroyer of virtually any human relationship.

It will cause all kinds of problems in the family.

It will cause problems at school.

It will cause problems at work.

It will cause problems in the life of someone who's trying to be a Christian.

Selfishness destroys that relationship.

We need to teach our Children unselfishness.

And then finally, the seventh thing, we need to teach our Children to give them an understanding of the marital roles.

Now someone says, yeah, but my child is only four or five years old.

What, what can they understand about, you know, marital roles, husbands and wives.

Should we begin teaching them that that age, that the husband is to love his wife and the wife is to submit to her husband that, that they're to take care of each other, to love each other.

Sure, we can.

Since the majority of people are going to eventually marry, parents need to teach their Children what kind of mate to look for and what kind of make to be young people need to be looking as they're seeking some sort of a lifetime partner.

They need to be looking at the spiritual character of people.

Does this person that I'm interested in?

Do they have any understanding of what marriage is?

Like?

What it's, how it's supposed to operate?

And as we teach our Children, hopefully we're teaching them to be good husbands and good wives.

But unfortunately, what do young people?

A lot of times look at, well, who's the prettiest, who is the most handsome?

Fortunately for me, Debbie didn't look at that, but we sometimes look at appearance and the way someone is dressed or even the things that they have.

But those are not necessarily indicators of good mates.

Young people need to look at the spiritual qualifications of those with whom they associate and particularly if they're thinking of marrying.

I'll tell you something about this.

You will be teaching your Children about marriage, whether intentionally or not, they're going to learn about husbands and wives from the way their fathers and mothers behave in their home.

Hopefully, they're going to see good examples.

Hopefully they're going to be see templates of the way scripture says husbands and wives ought to behave.

But even if parents don't intentionally teach their Children about marriage, the behavior of parents usually influences the Children.

I can't tell you how many times my sisters have said, you know, you're just like dad.

Well, you're influenced by your parents and you learn about marriage, you learn about parenting from your parents and your family.

In so many cases, we need to ask the questions.

Are fathers teaching their sons that a husband is courteous to his wife, gentle and protecting.

Does he show a willingness to sacrifice for his family?

Are mothers teaching their daughters how to manage a home, uh how to love and submit to their husbands?

Or does the mother run the husband down or does she build him up in front of the Children?

One thing I always appreciated about Debbie when the Children were at home and even now is she didn't criticize me in front of the Children and there was plenty to criticize and she doesn't run me down in front of other people, even though she could tell things that probably wouldn't be very flattering.

I'm imperfect just like anybody else.

She protects me.

Do, do your Children see that in their mother?

Do they see that in their father that he will not criticize her in public?

But he protects her, her reputation.

Parents need to indeed provide physical necessities for their Children?

Please understand.

I'm not saying that it's wrong for us to provide nice things for our Children.

We tried to do that with our Children, particularly David.

But the seven things that I've mentioned tonight, I think are extremely important for Children who are going to be adequately prepared for adulthood, respect for authority, having a biblically moral foundation, sense of responsibility, a sense of gratitude.

Teaching them to have a work ethic that will prosper them and to persevere in their task, unselfishness and to help them understand what husbands and wives, how they should behave and how to be good spouses.

Now, I'll tell you something, you can give your Children a lot of things and not spend much time with them.

In fact, sometimes what happens is parents are so determined to provide all kinds of good things for their Children that the Children raise themselves while the parents are out making money to buy things for the kids.

When what the kids really need the parents.

And if you're going to give these seven things to your Children, the first thing you're gonna have to give them is yourself because it takes time to teach Children these things.

It takes intention, it takes planning to give these lessons to make these lessons for your Children.

Well, when should you start?

Well, Jared Davis is already on his third lesson.

Start right away.

Some of these principles you can start with with infants, practically, they can understand things.

I'm afraid that some parents assume that somewhere in the late teenage years, there's this magical moment when suddenly all of it clicks or at least that's the point at which I should try to deal with these things.

At that point, it's too late in the ball game often for you really to make a difference in the Children.

They've already, they've already developed their opinions, their perceptions of things.

You're too late.

I'm not saying you shouldn't try to play, catch up, but that's what you're doing.

You're playing catch up.

You need to start with Walker to start with.

I said, Jared didn't I, Jude, that's what I meant.

Jude's on his third lesson.

And other Children, you start as early as possible.

We're imperfect parents.

Debbie and I, well, Debbie made some mistakes as we are raising David and Jonathan.

We're imperfect parents.

But fortunately, we have a perfect parent, our creator.

He knows us better than we know ourselves.

He knows what we really need.

It's not things he gives us what we really need and that's his graces.

The grace that brings forgiveness is only available through Jesus Christ.

The question is, are you in Christ?

Have you accepted the offer of forgiveness that God makes through the gospel?

And if we can assist you this evening, to respond to your creator, who wants to be your heavenly father and to give you everything that is important for you to enjoy eternal life with him.

If we can assist you in doing that, we want to encourage you to make that known, come to the front.

We will assist you as we stand and sing.