This is a topic that is really close to my heart. Ever since I have become a Mother to our two beautiful children, God has put a passion in my heart to raise our children HIS way and not "our" way. Everyone has the way that they were raised up as children from their childhood and they can pick and choose things that they will do and not do. Carlos and I dedicated both of our babies to the Lord and made a vow to raise them HIS way and by HIS word. This blog is going to let people know what we do with our children and maybe it will give other parents tips. :) We are in complete agreement as Husband and Wife that we understand that our children have to go to God first instead of their parents. We want our children to have an intimate relationship with Jesus from a young age and know that they can always go to him because he is always with them and he will never leave them or forsake them. A great example of this is: If our Son is afraid in the middle of the night, instead of crying and running to Mom and Dad to give comfort and assurance, we are raising him to go to Jesus first and learn that he can rebuke that fear because he has all authority over the earth because of what Jesus did on Calvary. If then afterwards he wants to run to Mom and Dad then of course we are there for him, but we want him to always go to Jesus first for EVERYTHING!
Many children pick up traits and habits from their childhood. If parents are anxious and worried, then the child will grow up that way because children model after their parents. There were particular traits that I had to work out with Jesus because they did not lign up with his word, so I had to give my habits to Jesus and work on walking out his word, so I wouldn't pass them down to our children. How do you know if you are doing it Gods Way? Pick up his word and read it for yourself. Seek him and pray to him for wisdom and knowledge. Deuteronomy 11:18-28 You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens remain above the earth. For if you are careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and hold fast to Him, then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. Every place on which the sold of your foot treads shall be yours, your border will be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea. No man will be able to stand before you; the Lord your God will lay the dread of you and the fear of you on all the land on which you set as He has spoken to you. See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today; and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following other gods which you may not have known.
We know that God has not given us a Spirit of Fear, but of Power, Love, and a Sound Mind (2 Timothy 1:7) So our children will understand that when they feel fear, that it is not from God and they can rebuke it and take full authority over the situation.
We will share our pasts failures and success with our children and be open and honest with them, giving God all of the glory. I want our children to see that we are not perfect and that it is ALL God and share with them what God has delivered us from and the blessing he had done in our lives.
Each and every night we surround our children in prayer and bless them and protect them. We pray the Word of God over their lives and pray for their future spouses, friends, and mentors. We build a hedge of protection around them so the enemy cannot get near them and no weapon formed against them will prosper. We pray the blood of Jesus around our children and understand what that means. In the morning they are prayed for and protected for that day.
Carlos and I made an agreement from the very beginning to never have arguments in front of the children. We do not want our children raised in a household to where there is shouting and arguing. Children at a young age develop fear and insecurity when they see arguing between their Moms and Dads and actually end up thinking they had something to do with the argument. If we need to have a discussion about something we wait until the kids are in bed and we go to a quiet place to where we can sit down and have a discussion and work out the issue. Carlos and I understand that when we argue that there are deeper things going on, and that we cannot allow them to continue in our home. 2 Corinthians 10:4 We use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. When you can understand that this is what is happening, then it is easier to put Gods word about the flesh. We will also not go to bed until there is peace in our home. We understand that we will bring strife into our home if we go to bed angry, and we do not want the enemy walking around in our home around our children. Ephesians 4:26-27 In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.
Our children will be raised by Gods Word and not what is acceptable to the World. In our culture today, the "World" has made many things the new "normal" and acceptable and we will only stand on Gods Word and what His Word says!!!!
I pray that the Holy Spirit spoke to you from this blog post and the things that we shared from our family, will help you to start doing it with your family. We need to remember that God blessed us with our children and that our children are HIS. They are not our own!! God created them and placed them in our belly and we have a duty and purpose that we are responsible for to raise up for HIS glory and HIS purpose. Our children are not our own, and they need to be given back to God. We need to take our hands off of our children and lift them up to God and say "Here, Your Will be done!!"
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