An image
Indulge my imagination for a moment with an image of a string ensemble - this one made up of two violins, a viola, a cello, and a double bass (yes, the bass is missing from the picture, but it's mostly the other four that will occupy our attention). I’m going to use the acronym BASS to represent the point toward which we are aiming as we educate, train, and instruct our children toward wisdom and Christian maturity. This young adult is, hopefully, characterized by the following traits
|
Belief in the Lord
We want our children to have a firm and unwavering belief in who God is, what the Bible says about who He is, who we are, and what our purpose on Earth is. We want them to understand and believe the Bible and commit it to their understanding and memory. We want them to have an unshaken faith in the gospel, that Jesus died for our sins, was crucified, dead and buried, and on the third day rose from the dead.
Availability to the Lord
We don't only want our children to have head knowledge of God, but to be committed to following Him as Lord. We want them to be ready to say "yes" wherever and however He leads them. Between belief and availability, we want them to live out the greatest commandment to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Service to others
We don't want our children to be "so heavenly minded they are no earthly good". We want them to live out the second greatest commandment, to love their neighbor as themselves, through service to others and sharing the gospel as well. We want their future profession to be of service to others and to their own family, able to work with their minds and hands, and to provide for those entrusted to them by the Lord.
Sanctification
We want our children not only to master the "talk" but also the "walk". We want them to be committed to growing in holiness, not through legalistic measures, but by personal conviction of right and wrong according to the Scriptures, and by an awareness of their need for, and daily reliance on, the Holy Spirit.
Another way to look at these is that we want our children to be fully mature in the Lord, encompassing their head (belief), heart (availability), hands (service), and habits (sanctification).
The big question is, how can we move our children in this direction?
We are given an idea of how to do that from another ancient passage in the Bible. Click here to read more.