What Do You Do When You Can’t Get to the Heart?
The Biblical Basis for Obedience
Ephesians 6:1, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.”
Two qualifying statements to this sentence:
Eph 6:2, “ ‘Honor your father and mother’ “—which is the first commandment with a promise — “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”
Definition of Obedience: Obedience is the willing submission of one person to the authority of another. And this submission is essentially manifested in two ways:
For the child, obedience is more than just doing what he is told.
It means doing what he is told—
Practical Tip to help when you are asking your children to do something: have them come to stand before you (physically) before you give them a command.
Teaching Obedience - from our perspective as Parents
- A Call for Consistency.
- The same rules, the same standards.
- A Call to Encouragement. (Book suggestion: https://www.amazon.ca/Future-Men-Raising-Fight-Giants/dp/1591281105)
- Discernment in our parenting.
- Remember to be gracious with our kids.
IV. Some parting thoughts:
- Goals for our Parenting
Another reason why we parent is because we want our children to learn to live under gracious, godly authority.
Two dangers we need to avoid:
- Legalism.
- Licentiousness.
