Dad, wake up, times almost over!

Quoting William Gurnall

You also fail yourselves by leaving your children in a state of ignorance, for you heap upon yourselves the consequences of their sins as well as your own. When a child breaks one of God's commandments, it is his sin; but it is also the father's if he never taught the child what the commandment of God was. Wicked children become heavy crosses to their parents. When a father or mother must trace the source of wickedness to his or her neglect in training the child, cross is laid upon cross and the load becomes unbearable. Can there be a greater heartache in this life than to see your own child running full speed towards hell, and know that you were the one who outfitted him for the race? Oh, do your best while they are young and in your constant care, to win them to God and set them on the road to heaven.

Most important, you fail God when you rear an ignorant child. Scripture tells of those who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Among others, this includes parents who lock up the knowledge of salvation from their children. Where is the parent who will rob his own son's house? Yet this is what you do if you neglect his spiritual education. For you keep in your own pocket the gold talent that God intended for you to give your child. If you leave no godly inheritance, what will happen when you die, and the truth of the gospel is buried along side rotting bones?

If you are God's child, then your children stand in closer relationship to the heavenly Father than the children of the unbelievers. God depends on you to nurture them as you have been nurtured, and to protect them at all costs from the devil's education. Training your children up in the ways of the Lord is no casual suggestion. Your refusal to obey, whether the product of deliberation or neglect, will pay you bitter wages when you stand before the King of kings in the judgment"

The Christian in Complete Armour, (year 1665)

Now I am not a perfect parent and trust me I do not have a bunch of little saints running around my house. If you spend time over here you will see very quickly that we have a lot of work to do in our home. But one thing is prevalent when you speak to my wife our myself. We want to do more, we want to be better and we desire that God is exalted in our life's first for them to see. It is amazing how much time we spend entertaining ourselves. We have such work to do and it must be done day in and day out. Most of the time obedience is not glamorous although there are times God sends us fruit but for the most part it is pretty tough. If you walked in to our family devotion or our morning devotion you would not see fireworks going off or kids falling on the Ground in repentance. Most of the time it is stressful and frustrating especially with a newborn, a 2 year old and an almost 4 year old. It is tough and I walk away someday wondering what was I thinking. But the more I read the word the more I am convinced that it is the constant watering of the word that will give our children the lasting benefits of the gospel. But it is hard and we have to do hard things. Let us continue in our own devotion to God-day in and day out spent in the word and in prayer. For those that are parents....Just do it. Get a devotion set up, do what you have to do in order to stop them from going to hell.

In Christ,