If children are God's heritage, how does God want them raised, so that when they are old, they will
not depart form His way?  This is a question that burdens the heart of every godly parent, and sometimes
causes pious mothers to wring their hands in fear.  "Am I really doing this right?  Or am I going about it all
wrong?"  This is an important question because we understand the significance of God's covenant with
believers and their children.  Children are the heritage of Jehovah.

 The answer, though profound, is very simple.  Christians raise their children as God, the Father,
raises them.  If we parents who desire to raise our children properly would only remember that, we would
not be in a panic, thinking that we must read every "how to" book on the market to be good parents.
Parents, let us love our children, as God loves us!

 The whole Bible points to God's Fatherhood as the rule of our behavior towards our children.  Just
think of the Lord's Prayer that has us praying, "Our Father . . ." and of Jesus' teaching in Matthew that says,
"If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?"

 Of all the virtues God shows to His children, LOVE underlies them all.  There are other virtues that
characterize God's behavior toward us - pity and compassion, dealing with a firm hand, wisdom, justice, and
more.  But love is basic to them all.  Love is the heart of the relationship between God and His natural Son,
Jesus Christ.  In love, God begat Him and now lives with Him in the blessed life of the Godhead, in God's
"bosom".  God refers to His Son as "my beloved Son",

 This power of love is behind all God's behavior towards His adopted children (us).  When Moses
explains in Deuteronomy 6 why God chose and saved Israel, the ultimate cause is, "because Jehovah love
you."  the real comfort for the child of God is that he is persuaded that nothing can separate him from the
love of God (Romans 8).

 And now, regarding our children, this must be the essential element in our relationship towards
them.  This is not to say that other virtues are not important.  This is to say that love is essential.

 In Hebrews 12 (please read this), where comfort is brought to the suffering church whose hands
hang down and knees are weak, and the comparison is made between God's Fatherhood and ours, the
apostle wants the people to be assured of God's love for them.  "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth . . ."

 It is not natural for parents to love their children.  Yes, there is a "natural" love, a certain affection
that all parents have toward their children, seen in what they will sometimes do for their children.  But a
parent does not have naturally the true love that is a reflection of God's love for His children.  Especially
when children are showing their "bad side", parents do not love their children naturally.

 Love for children is a gift from God!  God puts the necessary love in the hearts of parents, gives
the astounding ability to reflect the love that He has for us and live by the power of that love.  But God
gives that love through His Word.  When the Word of God calls parents, "Love your children," God creates
the power of that love in their hearts as really as His Word worked to create the worlds and as really as
Jesus' Word recreated life in dead Lazarus.  Also, God gives love through prayer.  "Ask, and it shall be
given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."  God wants parents to ask for
the ability they need to be good parents.  Last, God gives love to mothers through the teaching of the older
women in the church.  Titus 2:4 teaches that the older women have as their duty in the church to teach the
younger women to "love their husbands and to love their children."  Indeed, this is a gift; but a gift that is
learned.

 Part of a parent's love is that they tell their children of their love for them.  Imagine, a God in
heaven Who loves His children but fails to tell them He loves them?  Impossible!  How often do parents, in
this fast paced life, tell (and show) their children how they love them?  Failure here destroys them,
psychologically and spiritually.  If God rarely told His children that He loved them, they would be spiritual
wrecks, "basket cases", life not worth living.  This is the distress of those whose sin brings them away from
God and the testimony of the Spirit that they are the children of God.  We sing in Psalm 63, "The
lovingkindness of my God is more than life to me . . ."  And now what of parents who fail to tell their
children of their love?  All other things being equal, they have no sense of security, no knowledge of God's
love; really, except by God's grace, and come to psychological and spiritual ruin.

 The goal of parent's love for their children is the children's obedience and holy life.  The ultimate
goal of parents is that their children be holy:  holy in school, holy in work, chaste in their behavior with
friends. Without holiness, "no man shall see the Lord" (see Hebrews 12:10,14).  Children need this
holiness, because they are sinners.  "Conceived and born in sin" (Psalm 51), every child needs holiness from
God.

 Parents teach their children this holiness.  They teach them the commandments:  teach them to
worship only God, to use His name reverently, to remember the Sabbath day, and the rest.  They teach them
these commandments, not to keep them out of trouble, not so they can earn their salvation, but to show
thankfulness to God for His covenant with them.

 Failing in holiness, as children do, they are lead to the cross of Jesus where they find forgiveness
for their sins as well as power to change.  Repentance and faith!  This is the  heart of holy living for
children, too.  Let every parent have this mind in them:  I want my children to know Jesus as I know Him, to
find holiness in the cross where I find it.

 For this, parents must be holy.  They cannot teach their children holiness if their own life is
unholy, the virtues of the ninth commandment is their tongue always wags, or the good way of chastity if
they entertain themselves with immorality on TV or elsewhere.  This is not to say that their life must be
perfect; but that it, too, must be a life of repentance and faith, finding strength in the cross for holiness of
walk.  "Be ye holy" God says to His children, "for I am holy."

 For this, also discipline is necessary.  A love that is lax is not the love of God.  Proverbs says that a
man that withholds discipline hates his children.  Do not be an "Eli-father" who rebukes and rebukes and
rebukes but never follows up on that rebuke.  Children are ruined by this kind of parenting.

 Let this discipline begin early.  Let it be administered out of love (Hebrews 12:10).  Let it be done
with understanding, realizing their weaknesses and struggles ("As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord
pitieth them that fear him" Psalm 103:13).  Let it be done with a readiness to forgive, even as God forgives
us.  And let it be nixed with praise, for God praises His children, speaking well of them when they do well.

 What a great goal we have - nothing less than the behavior of God Himself!  Is that our goal,
parents - "I will model myself after God's behavior towards us'?  Is this my prayer each morning as I wake,
"Lord, God, my Father, I desire to behave myself towards my children even as thou dost behave towards
me"?

 What sinners we parents are!  We are not able to flatter ourselves about our behavior when we
understand what a perfect model we have in God.  How miserably we fail in our love for them, in our desire
for their holiness for God's sake.  How we fail in our discipline of them - inconsistent, unfair, poorly
motivated.  Where was the patience?  Where the praise?  Where the forgiveness?  Where was God?

 What a mighty Savior parents need!  What a great God we have to deliver us from our self-willed
discipline, from impatience, from failure to spend time . . .What a mighty Savior we parents have in our
great God, through His Son Jesus Christ.

 And when we pray to Him, asking strength to be godly parents, modeling out lives after Him, every
pious mother and every godly father can be assured:  I'm doing it right.