expectation that the gospel is powerful.
(^) Your heart’s desire in every phase of childrearing is to see your
children internalize the gospel. The desire in all your training, in all
your entreaty, in all your correction and discipline, is to see your
children come to the place where they have embraced the claims of
Christian faith.
(^) The reason for shepherding their hearts—appealing to the
conscience, focusing on character issues in correction and discipline,
addressing the heart as the spring of life, and refusing to give them a
keepable standard that would eliminate their need of Christ—is to see
them come to know God. You want them to recognize their need of
God, to embrace Christ, and to see their life in light of the Kingdom
of God.
(^) Internalization is the fruition of all that we have considered.
Recall with me Figure 3 that illustrates Godward orientation.
Internalization is your children coming to maturity as persons who
know and worship God.
(^) I’ve often been asked whether I thought my children would be
Christians. Parents desperately seek some promise from the Bible that
their children will have faith. I don’t believe that promise is found in
the Word of God.
(^) I have been asked, “Don’t you think that if you raise your children
the right way, God has promised to save them?” If such a promise
existed, it wouldn’t comfort me. I haven’t raised them well enough.
Looking over their lives, I want to join the ranks of parents who
would like to do it over again. I am keenly aware of shortcomings and
limitations.
(^) It should be clear by now that I am not talking about “getting them
saved” in terms of an evangelistic event. I rather envision leading
them along the path of a deepening understanding of and commitment
to God. Repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will
be a part of that life of deepening understanding of and commitment