Godly parenting is diligent faith in practice. When it comes to the good works which God has prepared in advance for you to do, raising your children to fear the Lord is near the top of the list. Consider first that it’s an act of faith. God makes gloriously astonishing promises to your children, and you must trust Him for the fulfillment of these promises. Not only that, but as you look at your children, you need to see them, not as they are at present, but what God in His grace intends them to be. They are meant to be brightly arrayed saints who surround heaven’s throne with endless praise. As Lewis pointed out, if you were to meet a glorified saint you’d be tempted to worship them.
Look down your row. There are little saints who right now are fiddling with a crayon, asleep in a car-seat, and resisting the urge to poke their sister. But you must see what God intends them to be, and focus all your paternal energies to that end. Trust that sowing is rewarded with reaping.
That is the faith part. Now for the diligence part. It’s easy to dupe yourself into thinking the duty is done once you’ve crested one particular parenting hill––the toddler went to sleep without getting out of bed, or the teenager got out of bed without you needing to shake them. But diligence requires that you understand that by leading your child through one temptation or immaturity you are readying them for a greater one. Like the orphaned Narnian Shasta learned, successful obedience in one task sets you immediately on the path of a new duty.
In all this, you parents must dig deep, not despair, and roll up your sleeves in this good work of readying the little saints assigned to you for everlasting service in the heavenly Jerusalem.
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