Parenting: Father and Mother

Text: Psa. 127:3-5
More Lessons: Eph 6:1-5, Deut. 4:9-10
Bible Reading in one Year: Isaiah 58-60

A father has a priestly role in the home. The work of a priest is to bless the people and represent them before God. A priest is the cover for the people he represents because he appears before God for them. So a father is a burden bearer of the house. He carries the burden of all his family members before God and intercedes on their behalf. A priest blesses the people he represents and prays against any curse that might be placed on them. A priest also guides and leads: the leadership of the father should first be seen in creating a spiritual atmosphere where the wife and the children can grow. He leads them in the way of the Lord by first being an example for the whole family to follow.

The Lord says of Abraham …I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD… Gen 18:19. This is the role a father should play in the house. Doing the will of the Lord should not be a matter of choice for the wife and the children; it is what the father should command to be done. The days we live in are days where there are laws and regulations that have collapsed the true nature of the family institution that God created. Many of our fundamental rights are totally against the Bible. A child in some developed countries can get his parents arrested for correcting him for doing what is wrong.
This is what the world is becoming and we should not forget that we are Christians and are not of the world. The father is an instructor. As an instructor he should not spare the rod. The Bible says in Pro 13:24, He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him quickly. The little things you ignore today may later hunt the future of the child you spoilt. A son who is without chastisement is like a bastard. Children have their excesses and most times these are not to be ignored. There are stories all around of parents who go to their children's school to fight because a teacher disciplined them. Discipline does not kill a child but ignoring discipline does (Pro 23: 13-14). Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying: Pro 19:18. When you truly train up a child in the way he should go, you have secured the future for him because he will not depart from what he has learnt.

Children are God's heritage and we have the responsibility of raising them for the glory of God. Parenting is not limited to fathers alone, it is an assignment for fathers and mothers together. Since it took the two to bring forth, the two must also build them. Fathers must carry their wives along in building the children and leading the home. The consequences of a divided home can only be imagined. A home comprises of the father, mother and children and all have a God-given role to play in the making of a good home.

Prayer/Action
*Ask God for a priestly anointing upon all present and future parents.
* Ask God to help all mothers to be true help meets and co-builders in the bond.

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