was with my son, who has repeatedly said that those days were
valuable days for him. They were like David’s boyhood days of
difficulty with the bear and lion. They had prepared him to do battle
with Goliath in the power of the Lord.
(^) David, while only a boy (see 1 Samuel 17:33), said, “The LORD
who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear
will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:37).
Why is it that we can see that David learned to trust God in the thick
of things as a boy with the lion and the bear, and yet we think that our
children cannot learn these lessons of faith as well? What is worse,
we set a life before our children that doesn’t even require faith. We
give a keepable standard that casts them on their own resources and
native abilities and endowments—turning them away from Christ and
his cross to themselves and their own resources.
(^) Let’s think through another character quality. All Christian
parents are concerned with moral purity. Remember, character is
living consistently with who God is and who I am.
(^)
(^) I am persuaded that we can raise children to be morally pure even