Children

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honour 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.” – Ephesians 6.1-3

After we talk about the importance of mom and dad and their lifetime commitment we move on to the natural result of their relationship - children.

Childhood is the ideal training ground for submission. It is where children see the pattern set for the rest of their lives.

No matter what we do we have to learn to submit. We have to submit to the government. We have to submit to laws. We have to submit to each other. We have to  submit to the Lord.

That is why loving parents will use the home as a training ground in submission.

It is not easy to teach submission. Kids rarely are natural born submitters. We may come across an occasional placid, quiet, obedient, child who rarely needs correction - but they are rare. Most child want their own way. They don't want to go to bed or they want sweets or don't want to take a bath or whatever. If that is not corralled while young they never learn how to submit in real life.

If they never learn to submit in our homes they are going to face real struggles in life.

It doesn't seem like much, and sometimes it can feel selfish. If we don't do it right we can even get our children to obey just to make our lives easier. The next verse gives the balance to ‘children obey your parents in the Lord’ so it is not a matter of submission to parental tyranny.

We focus on ‘children obey your parents’ but it is our job to teach them to do it properly. We can't dislove our children by not teaching and expecting obedience.