Explaining My Parenting To God

Recently, my pride has been torpedoed by the thought of explaining my parenting one day to God.

I’m not sure what brought it on but I found myself thinking about that day when I will stand before God Himself and be forced to give an explanation for my parenting. One thought ran to another and I remembered the well known passage that I would like to think that I have lived by: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

I decided to go to the book of Joshua (chapter 24) and take another look at the passage and, as usual, received more from God than I was expecting.

In the first 12 verses, Joshua recounts to the people the faithfulness of God through His dealings, starting with Abraham and running through generations who were later brought out of the bondage of Egypt. God is purposed in His words (through Joshua) that recall the awesome power of God displayed in the plagues and other miraculous deliveries from Israel’s enemies. As God brought the Israelites out of slavery, I was reminded of how God brought me out of slavery to sin back in 1993.

Then in verse 13, He reminds the people that, “I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities which you had not built, and you have lived in them; you are eating of vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.” Again, I was convicted to give thanks to God for how He has engineered blessings into my life and the life of our school, many of which I did not work for.

Then we arrive at the great conclusion and challenge from Joshua to the people: “Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.”

He says that because all of the above is true about what God has done and Who He is, fear Him and serve Him! And by the way, put away those gods that you have been holding onto from your parents.

Gods from your parents? What does that mean?

It means that these Israelites were still holding onto ungodly idols that had been taught to them by their moms and dads. It made me think about what my kids have learned from me. What idols do I have that I have modeled worshipping to my children?

Well, maybe the god of material things. Maybe the god of appearance. Maybe the god of sports. Maybe the god of knowledge. I have quite a few gods in my cabinet. Maybe, by my example, I have trained my children to worship the same gods. 

Joshua then doesn’t exhort them to fear and serve God, but instead he says choose! Choose who you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord! And again, he goes back to mentioning the gods of your fathers. Make a decision! Either it’s the one true God who has loved and preserved you or it’s those worthless habits that you have inherited from your parents.

“If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

The response of the people was predictable. In a nutshell, they proclaimed that, in light of the faithfulness and greatness of God, it would be ridiculous for them do anything but serve the one true God.

Well, the end of the story is that they didn’t do what they said they would and, compared to where we are today, most Christian families are in the same boat. I am afraid that we as Christian parents want the God of faithfulness and power on our side, but we serve far too many other gods in our lives and are suffering the consequences.

In light of that comment, I want you to try to digest this quote from R.L. Dabney, the great nineteenth century theologian:

“The education of children for God is the most important business done on Earth. It is one business for which the Earth exists. To it, all politics, all war, all literature, all money-making, ought to be subordinated; and every parent especially ought to feel, every hour of the day, that, next to making his own calling, this is the end for which he is kept alive by God – this is his task on Earth.”

 

Wow, is this guy a little “over the top” or what? Well, Mr. Dabney was probably thinking about a few of these points gleaned from the Bible: 

• That it is the design of God that the family be the functioning means for creating and raising children.
• That children are a gift from God to parents.
• That children are absolutely dependent for care and nurturing on their parents and that the role of the parents is to educate their children toward a love and knowledge of God. (Ephesians 6:4)
• That we are absolutely not to do anything that would hinder children from coming to Christ. (Luke 18:6)
• That God seems to have a special compassion towards children, widows, and orphans.
• That people are more likely to come to God at a younger age while their hearts have not grown hard and cold to God and before they have fallen in love with the world (there’s those other gods).
• That the sharing of the gospel with the next generation will be done by our children. Therefore there should be incredible urgency and priority to train them and prepare them.
• That every parent will give an account of how they parented.

So maybe Dabney is not so crazy. Maybe we’re crazy for not taking parenting seriously enough! What’s getting in your way of pouring yourself into raising your children for Christ? Do you have an idol or god on this list? Are you too busy to do the job right because you……. 

• Need time for personal entertainment.
• Need time for your golf game or other sports.
• Have to work, work, work so you can get everything you want now plus have a secure retirement fund.
• Just need time away from your kids.

Or maybe you don’t have time to spend reading and learning about what the Bible says about all of life or don’t know what the promises of God are. Or finally, are you afraid to parent your child Biblically because you are afraid that your child will reject you or other parents will think that you are odd? That’s what Jesus called fear of man rather than God- not a good thing to try to explain to God.

Parenting is the most important job on the planet. Just imagine a world where Christian parents dig in and sacrifice everything to raise their children in a Christian way; it would be a world transformed.

Christian parents are doing something that counts for now and all eternity! I encourage you (and me) to do it with all of our hearts so that on that day that we give an explanation for our parenting, we will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”