Joy In Serving: Devotions From Time Of Grace MinistryНамуна

My Family: Teach your children

Why is it so hard to teach children to serve? Why is it so devilishly hard to get kids to think of other people before they talk and act? My eagerness to criticize my own children is tempered by some semifaint memories of scoldings I got from my own father about my own youthful selfishness.

Raising children to have a servant spirit is terribly hard. But it is work that must be done. God provides both guidance and power in his wonderful Word. “He [an overseer in the church] must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect” (1 Timothy 3:4).

Parents, if your children don’t learn to respect you, they will probably not respect their teachers. Or the lunch lady. Or the crossing guard. Or their boss at work. Or speed limits. Or any laws. Or the police.

Or God.