My husband and I were both very blessed to be raised in the Church. We both were raised with one parent out of the Church and one in. We were both very blessed to have a parent who taught us how to pray to our Creator and what a blessing it is to know Him.

I have been thinking about this a lot lately because my husband and I have three children, and we are very blessed that they are all still in the Church. Not only are they in the Church, but they really love God’s way and are so far ahead of where we were when we were their age. Two of the three of our children have attended Ambassador Bible Center, with the third eagerly anticipating attending.

I have had several people ask lately what we have done. First of all, it’s not what we have done: It’s absolutely what God has done through answered prayers. We’ve heard some very disheartening stories of children going to camp and not knowing how to pray. I even had a friend tell me that her dad was a minister in the Church, and he never taught her how to pray. This is so sad to me. My motto has always been, “A family that prays together stays together.”

Our son is 26 years old, and when he was a teen, he wanted to play football on Friday nights. As a sophomore we decided that we had taught him the importance of the Sabbath, but we would let him make his decision. To our dismay he chose to play on Friday nights. As we analyzed this we found that we were still very immature as a couple in that we didn’t make the Sabbath a true delight while raising him.

We found with our younger two that because we strived to make the Sabbath special and a delight, they have never had a desire to go out on Friday night. We generally have a nice Sabbath dinner, we have spiritual conversations that night and the next morning and we have a large Sabbath breakfast. It’s a wonderful family day focused on our Creator. We have had a few boys come into the Church just from simply being over for Sabbath dinners and enjoying the family atmosphere with God being the center of that.

In addition to making the Sabbath a delight, another thing we strived to do was never putting any school or other activity above observing the Sabbath. There are times when missing church for certain reasons is acceptable, but as far as a sporting activity or school activity, that was always a definite “no.” It’s our responsibility as a parent to teach our kids that God made the Sabbath for us to rest and honor Him and that it should be a delight. We have six days of the week to attend sporting and school activities. We should be at church to honor God on the Sabbath.

We talk with our children about God’s blessings on our family and the importance of following His path. We have always prayed together as a family not only before dinner, but out loud on our knees together. Not all our children have felt completely comfortable doing this, so if one chooses to listen while the rest of us pray, that’s okay. My husband and I always pray that God dwells in our house.

My husband and I have made it a point to make God a part of our daily conversation, striving to follow Deuteronomy 6:6-7: “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”

We heard in a Bible study by Ken Martin at the Feast that if you are not praying and spiritually fighting for your kids every single day, Satan is fighting for them always! That was such a profound statement to me because, I am sure like me, nobody wants Satan to get ahold of their children. We need to pray daily that God gives our children the wisdom to choose right over wrong and to protect them from the influence of Satan.

We’ve also always made it a priority to have our children involved as much as possible in the Church. They have all been in teen speech club, and we have tried to make sure that they all attend camp. Sometimes they didn’t want to, but they were always very glad when they did. We have tried to attend every Winter Family Weekend. It’s very important that our children establish close relationships with other youth in the Church because the relationships really do last a lifetime.

Last but not least is the very touchy subject of discipline. In today’s society it is very socially unacceptable to discipline your children. First of all, kids like rules and boundaries—it makes them feel secure. God disciplines us through trials. “Do not withhold correction from a child, for if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. You shall beat him with a rod, and deliver his soul from hell” (Proverbs 23:13-14). “Correct your son, and he will give you rest; yes, he will give delight to your soul” (Proverbs 29:17). I am not saying to beat your child with a rod, but you cannot reason with a two-year-old. A little spanking or smack on the hand never hurt my husband and me when we werer growing up, nor any of our children—actually we probably could have used a few more.

All in all, the key points that we have striven to abide by in raising our children are:

·  Pray with your children from the time they are able to get on their knees. Make them feel comfortable talking to their Creator.

·  Pray that God dwells in your household and that He will give you the wisdom to raise your children in the way that He would want them raised. They are on loan to you from Him.

·  Talk to your children about God and let them know that He is the center of your life and the center of your marriage. That everything that goes on in your life in some way relates to lessons God is teaching us on a daily basis. “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

·  Make sure that you are setting the right example. Do not expect your children to follow God if you are not. One major reason for rebellion is hypocrisy. If you make a mistake or do something that is not right, apologize to your children and let them know that you made a mistake. You could even take them with you to God and ask God for forgiveness in front of them. Explain how sorry you are, don’t make excuses for what you did; just simply admit you were wrong.

God wants us to have children who love their parents, who love their homes, and most of all who love Him. If we ask Him continually for guidance in raising our children, He will give that to us.

The best inheritance that we can leave to our children is to know God with their entire heart and soul and to truly love Him and His way.