primary discipler

i recently heard a sermon from voddie baucham about child training. it was amazing and very convicting. everyone should check it out.

it got me to thinking about the way i go about discipling my children. our foster son, monkey, is at an age where he is absorbing everything. and while explaining transubstantiation to him might be a bit much, never underestimate how much "Jesus loves me" or "this little light of mine" along with a Bible verse and prayer will do. children at any age can learn: this is a point of contention between myself and some other parents at our church.

so after hearing this sermon, i have set aside some time each morning to disciple my children actively. there are tons of moments each day where i have been missing teachable times. so here's what i've changed and see if you like it. what i figure is: if you lay the foundation at breakfast, the rest of the day follows suit.

each morning at breakfast (since the children are sitting and contained) i read a daily devotional for toddlers along with a thing i got from a NANC conference (national assoc of nouthetic counseling) that has 10 scriptural principles to teach your children. these 10 principles each have around 3-5 scripture references. (at NANC they suggested going over 1 each month with your kiddos). we go over one scripture reference a day. while doing so, we go over where to find it in the Bible. then we go over some theological questions that voddie poses in his sermon, such as "who made you?" or "why did God make you?" etc.

another thing we've done is change our house rules. as a foster family, we have to have house rules posted somewhere. so we changed our rules to this:
1. obey your parents (ephesians 6:1)
2. love your neighbor as yourself (matthew 22:39)
throughout the day when gabe is acting up, we go over what sin is and what the two rules are as well as which one he did not follow. we talk about how sin is displeasing to God and how we want to obey God and His word because He made us and we want to glorify Him. (and these things we've discussed during breakfast).

it's really changed my attitude about parenting and it's exciting because it's no longer just mommy saying "don't do that..." it's God's word saying it. and with gabe memorizing these verses, it helps him as well.

you should really check out Voddie and his child training sermon. (note: it's like 45 minutes long and you might want to take notes. sit down during nap time or something with a notebook, drink some tea, and enjoy! it'll amp you up!)