More Truth About Raising Your Children

Being Sure of Their Salvation
Pages 179-187

We are continuing our study through Chapter seven as we look at lies women believe concerning their children. The next lie is a subtle one. Some parents assume that their children are believers because they prayed to receive Christ at a young age, even though, years later, their children's lives do not demonstrate evidence of genuine conversion.

Without realizing it, such parents may be giving their children a false sense of securiuty and may need to refocus their prayers for their children.

30. The Lie: I know my child is a Christian because he prayed to receive Christ at any early age.

The Truth: Those who do not have a heart for God or any hunger for the things of God and who have a consistent pattern of rejecting the Word and ways of God have no basis for assurance of salvation.

The essence of true salvation is not a matter of profession or performance; rather, it is a transformation!

2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."

1 John 3:10, "In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother."

The Truth: Parents who assume their children know the Lord, regardless of their lifestyle, may give their children a false sense of security and may not be praying appropriately for their children.

Hebrews 3:14, "For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end."

Two Extremes

The final lie of the chapter promotes two extremes. On one hand it indicates that parents are not responsible at all for how their children turn out; but on the other hand, it deceives parents into believing that they are 100 percent responsible.

31. The Lie: We are not responsible for how our children turn out.

The Truth: Parents have enormous influence in molding the lives of their children by their example, their teaching, and their leadership.

Proverbs 22:6, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

Ephesians 6:4, "And you, fathers [and mothers], do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord."

The Truth: Each generation is responsible to pass on to the next the heritage of a heart that knows and walks with God.

Psalm 78:5-6, "For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children; that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children..."

The Truth: Parents will give account to God for the spiritual condition of the lives He has entrusted to their care.

Proverbs 3:12, "For whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights."

Proverbs 13:24, "He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly."

The Truth: Each individual is responsible for his own walk and obedience.

Regardless of what kind of parents he had, each person will give account to God for his own choices.

Deuteronomy 24:16, "Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; a person shall be put to death for his own sin."

John 6:39, "This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day."

A Prayer

Lord, it is sobering to realize how much our children pick up from our lives, our values, and our walk with You. Please do whatever is needed to make me the mother than my children need. May my life create in them a desire to know and follow You. Please work in their lives to draw them to You, that our family may reflect Your light to others. Amen.