Recently we received some pictures from our daughter who lives overseas. She and her husband and three of our precious grandchildren are serving God in full-time missions. The pictures were of our son-in-law baptizing a young man he has been discipling. The joy on both of their faces is priceless.

While our daughter and son-in-law are making disciples of the nations in a land not-of-their-birth, they are also making disciples at home as they teach, model, and admonish their three children, just as our oldest daughter and son-in-law are doing with our other two grandchildren (all five under the age of seven). What a blessing it is to hear them recite scriptures they are learning, and be able to answer questions about who God is and why Jesus came.

I’m so thankful our children have made the decision to not only actively and regularly participate in attending and serving at their local church but also to keep their children in a Christian environment for school, especially while their minds are so young and impressionable. I want my grandchildren to have a solid foundation of biblical knowledge and to believe there is such a thing as absolute truth which comes from the mouth of God through His Word. I pray their little minds and hearts grow more and more tender and open to the Holy Spirit until such time as they understand and receive salvation.

My husband ran across the following commentary and quotes that are so relevant to parents as we consider our obligation and responsibility to disciple the children God gives us. Ephesians 6:1-3 says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honor your father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) that it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.”

It’s not by chance that Paul makes this statement. He writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who is reminding parents of their obligation to teach their children to obey. Obey whom? Not only their parents, but the higher authority of God, as expressed in the Ten Commandments.

Commenting on this passage, Charles Spurgeon notes that Paul uses the Commandment to bring the knowledge of sin. The biblical way to bring a child to the Savior is to teach him God’s Law. Immediately after Moses had read the Ten Commandments to Israel, he said that they should teach them to their children as they sit and as they walk, when they lie down and rise up. The Commandments should be placed where they can be constant reminders (see Deuteronomy 6:4-9). Why should our children be taught the Ten Commandments? Simply because they will show the child what sin is. As the child matures and discovers sin in his heart, and he begins to understand that God requires truth in the inward parts, the threat of the Law will drive him to the foot of a blood-stained cross. What child can look at Ephesians 6:1-2 and say that he is guiltless and therefore free of its warnings?

I clearly remember the Holy Spirit’s work in my own heart around the time I came to Christ and received Him as Savior. I had visited a friend’s house and decided to take a little watch home with me – a watch that did not belong to me, nor had I asked permission to borrow. When confronted, I immediately knew what I had done. I had stolen. I also knew God said, “Thou shalt not steal!” because my parents had impressed upon me the authority of God’s commands. I’m confident this conviction (and other similar instances) is what led me to understand my need for Christ’s forgiveness.

It is the parent’s responsibility to teach children what is right and what is wrong. How grateful I am that we have God’s immutable, trustworthy standard and definition of good and evil. How foolish we are to let culture or societal norms confuse our children and destroy a tender heart that needs to know what sin is.

Consider what Martin Luther, a German priest who lived more than five hundred years ago, had to say about secular education.

I am much afraid that schools will prove to be the great gates of hell unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not increasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt.

Wow. I wonder what he would say if he could see the condition of our public schools and universities today!

Elisabeth Elliot had this to say about a person who disobeys God’s commands:

Much sickness – physical, mental, and emotional – surely must come from disobedience. When the soul is confronted with an alternative of right or wrong and chooses to blur the distinction, making excuses for its bewilderment and frustration, it is exposed to infection. Evil is given the opportunity to invade the mind, the spirit, and the body and the sick person goes off to an expert who will diagnose his trouble. Sometimes the patient knows well what his trouble is and for this very reason has not consulted the Lord, fearing what He will say: Confess. Turn around. Quit that indulgence. Do not pity yourself. Forgive that person. Pay back what you owe. Apologize. Tell the truth. Deny yourself. Consider the other’s well-being. Lay down your life.

Do you want it to be well with your child? Do you want them to have a long and happy life? Do you desire for them to succeed, not just in financial or material possessions, but to have the wealth of a soul satisfied in all the blessings God promises?

Then teach them to obey as you model obedience to God. Do you know and believe the Ten Commandments? Are you teaching your children to honor God as He commands us, in word and deed?

The Ten Commandments

#1 – You shall have no other gods before Me.

#2 – You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them.

#3 – You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

#4 – Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

#5 – Honor your father and your mother.

#6 – You shall not murder.

#7 – You shall not commit adultery.

#8 – You shall not steal.

#9 – You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

#10 – You shall not covet.