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 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 6
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Parents have two great responsibilities in the raising of their children. First, they are to raise them to know God and to trust Him. Second, they are to raise their children to be like Christ. They are to raise their children first and foremost in view of eternity. “This is the eternal life, that they should know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3 JnD). If the child does not come to know God, His heart, His Son and His perfect obedient life, then that child’s life is an eternal waste. Parents must be trained themselves before they can properly raise their children. They cannot teach what they have not learned themselves. Parents who have not learned to trust God’s love and to obey the Lord are not fitted to raise their child to trust God’s love and to be like Christ, God’s submissive, obedient Son. The parents who traveled with Moses spent 40 years in God’s training school in order to learn how to raise children. “The Lord thy God led thee these forty years ... to humble thee ... to prove thee ... to know what was in thine heart” (Deut. 8:22And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. (Deuteronomy 8:2)). To know God’s heart, we must learn what is in our own heart. This learning humbles us. When we have learned to “lay up these My words in your heart and in your soul,” then “ye shall teach them your children” (Deut. 11:18-1918Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. 19And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (Deuteronomy 11:18‑19)). To help parents raise their child, God has given one commandment to the child: “Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord” (Col. 3:2020Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. (Colossians 3:20)).