Key Takeaways
- When parents neglect spiritual teaching, entire generations can fall away from God.
- Raising godly children requires more than providing for their physical needs.
- Conviction to serve the Lord must be taught and modeled. It’s not automatic.
- Societies collapse when parents abandon Biblical truth and godly instructions.
- Children need to learn to love God early, before the world teaches them otherwise.
Christian Parenting Advice
A Warning From Scripture
And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being a hundred and ten years old. And they buried him at the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash. And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. (Judges 2:8-10 KJV)
Physical Provision Isn’t Enough
According to Biblical parenting principles, parents must prioritize their children’s spiritual development, not just their physical well-being.
As parents, we all want what is best for our children. We do our best to provide food, clothing, and shelter for them. We get up at all hours of the night when they are sick to care for them, and we comfort them when they get hurt. We hold them when they are afraid, and we celebrate with them when they have victories.
Likewise, as parents, we hope that when our children have children, they are able to be better parents and provide a better life for their children.
Unfortunately for many parents, things do not always turn out as well as they plan for their children. This is because while they provide for their physical and emotional needs, they neglect Biblical parenting principles to provide for their spiritual needs.
Today’s Scripture verses are the result of many years of parental neglect by the children of Israel when it came to preparing their own children spiritually for the day that they ruled the nation. They also set us up for some practical Christian parenting advice.
Passing Down Faith: A Generational Failure
In Joshua 24:14-15, Joshua gathered the Israelites together to challenge them to make a choice in who they were going to serve when they lived in the promised land. He told them that they would encounter people who worship strange gods and live ungodly lives. Such preparation is in accordance with Biblical parenting principles.
He added that if they are serious about serving the Lord, then they must put away the strange gods from among them and serve the Lord from their hearts. The people adamantly responded that they chose to serve the Lord. Joshua literally set up a memorial and recorded their words as a testimony of their decision.
If you follow the story in the book of Judges 1-2, you find that the Israelites did exactly what they said they would not do. Instead of driving away the ungodly people and remaining faithful to the Lord, they formed relationships, intermarried, and adopted their idolatrous worship practices, contrary to Biblical principles of parenting.
In Judges chapter two, an angel of the Lord rebuked the Israelites for what they had done The rebuke grieved the Israelites so much that they turned from their sin with weeping and continued to live out their days. However, as that generation died out along with Joshua, their children grew up without the conviction to serve the Lord that their parents had.
Christian Parenting Advice Must Be Multigenerational
We find that this lack of conviction was because their parents never taught their children the history of all that God had done for them. That failure to impart Biblical parenting principles, along with the poor example their parents set for them when they moved into the area, set their children up for failure because their children were never taught to love God from their hearts.
We also find that when that generation grew up, they did not know the Lord, and they rejected Him from ruling their lives. The result was the destruction of their culture along with the loss of God’s blessings and protection.
Without the guidance we now consider Biblical parenting principles, it wasn’t long before they found themselves the object of God’s anger and without His protection. The Lord raised up judges to judge the Israelites, but before long, they would not listen to them either.
Therefore, the Lord allowed them to be defeated by their enemies and sold into bondage. With time, they cried out to God and He delivered them, but they suffered many cycles of the same over time. Today, Christian parenting advice grounded in Biblical truth is what helps break such cycles.
Sadly, history is full of examples of cultures that have been destroyed within three generations after they rejected sound Biblical principles of parenting and daily living. When we fail to take the spiritual education of our children seriously, we set them up for failure as adults, too, and it can adversely affect their children for many generations.
A Word of Encouragement to Parents
It is important as parents that we educate our children in God’s Word and teach them to love Jesus long before they even discover there is a devil. That, along with proper discipline and Biblical discipleship, will not guarantee that they grow up to be godly, God fearing people, but our prisons are full of people who ended up in bondage because they were never taught to love the Lord—strangers to Biblical parenting principles.
Many of them might have stood a chance against the world if their parents had devoted the time and the effort to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Proverbs 22:6; Ephesians 6:4; 2 Timothy 3:10-17).
For tools that support your parenting and personal discipleship journey, explore our spiritual growth books.
May God give us the desire and strength to teach our children to love the Lord, and that they would grow up to teach their children the same.
More From Us
At Christianity Every Day, we’ve got online Christian resources to keep you rooted in Christ. The resources will strengthen your Biblical parenting principles and help you navigate the world of Christian parenting advice better. Learn more.
Dr. Michael L. Williams, Head of Ministry Operations and Technology at Christianity Every Day, is a Christ-centered Author, Educator, Biblical Counselor and Advisor. He is ordained in Pastoral Ministry and formerly the founding Pastor of Selah Mountain Ministries, a church started along with his wife, Pamela Rose, after several years of pastoral experience and training in Biblical Counseling. Selah Mountain provided Biblical counseling and education to the public on how to overcome life issues Biblically on topics such as anger management, marriage, addictions, and other subjects – often referred to as mental illnesses. To learn more about Dr. Mike visit the About page.
