I left you a few weeks ago pondering the thoughts of handling sin correctly in your home. I hope you’ve begun the process of really evaluating the role you play in your child’s walk with Christ. We must first recognize the significance our words and actions play in their lives and then act. I want to help you with that and continue the conversation on handling sin.
A few weeks ago, my 12-year-old told me he wanted a grilled cheese sandwich. I set out the ingredients needed to make it and said go for it. Teach a man to fish, am I right? He looked at the food on the counter and then back at me with a confused look on his face and said, “What do I do now?” I sat down at the table and said, “I bet you can figure it out.”
Less than 10 minutes later, we were both eating a grilled cheese. He figured it out. He took the supplies he had, made the sandwich, and with pride ate “the best grilled cheese ever”.
I’m going to try this attempt again, but with you. I want to set some things out on the table for you, believe in you, and then sit back and watch you put it all together and succeed. But for you and me, it’s not a grilled cheese. It’s much more. What you are creating is the child the Lord has entrusted to you.
Here are your ingredients:
Remember that this is a warship, not a cruise ship. Fight.
I find myself saying this statement often because I truly believe it. If you’re a parent, you must realize you’re on a warship, not a cruise ship. This is not the time to sit back and watch the tides go by, hoping your next destination will be beautiful. This is a time for training and preparation and diligence on your part. With every fiber inside your body, you must find the strength to stand against settling during this time. Fight for your children. Prepare them for what will come when they step into the world on their own. Question their character, speak life into them, and show them what it looks like to consider Christ with everything they do. They will find themselves in a war battling for their hearts, beliefs, and identity. The training you are doing with them now, while they are in your home, will either prepare or confuse their endurance in the future.
Sin is an issue. Acknowledge it.
Our children have an enemy waiting for them to stumble. Put your child’s name in the blank below:
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking _______________ to devour (1 Peter 5:8, ESV).
The verse usually says “somebody” in that blank. But I need you to read it with your child’s name. I need you to recognize sin is real, personal, and serious.
You have no choice. Roll up your sleeves.
God has not only given you these children, but he has entrusted you with them. They are yours because he said they are. He trusts you will raise them up to be Kingdom Workers who are about their Father’s business. Don’t you dare forget who gave them to you. Don’t get distracted and don’t compromise; just roll up your sleeves.
There you have it. Your ingredients to “training up your child.” I can’t do this for you or even tell you exactly how it’s done. You know your child better than anyone else. Take some time. Prepare. Plan. Listen. Observe and then do it.
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
—Proverbs 22:6
About Mel Hiett
Hi friends, I’m Mel Hiett. I like to believe that my nine years of being a single mom to two rowdy boys helped prepare me for Arise MInistries. Just in case raising those two wild boys wasn’t enough training God allowed me to work with teenagers in the local church for sixteen years. If nothing else I have a handful of wild stories and God moments to share with all of you. My husband Trae and I decided to make life more interesting in 2017 when we got married. Together we have five children, two dogs, and some chickens. We have a family group text affectionately named “The Zoo”. Please feel free to follow my adventures on Facebook or Instagram @themelymel.