You may be a good parent who takes your child or children to church. If so, you have probably heard the Proverb train (raise) up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it (Prov. 22:6).
A lot of us hang our hat on this proverb. We think that if we take our kids to church now, they may wander later on, but they’ll come back to God when they get older.
After seeing what has happened with my oldest 2 kids, I have some advice for parents. One point is that children really do model or learn how to behave and act by watching us parents. Unfortunately, I taught my older kids discipline out of anger instead of discipline out of love. Kids need discipline, but there is a huge difference between punishing them when you are mad and punishing them to correct them for their own good. I also put work before my children back then. (In fact, I even put work before God at that time in my life which was obviously the wrong thing to teach them.)
The second lesson I’ve learned is that it’s not (usually) enough to just take your kids to church. Deut. 6:6-9 basically says teach your children God’s ways at all times, by your words and your actions. Teach your children well. Teach them to pray and read their bibles daily. Do devotion time with them at least weekly. (Make it fun, act out stories in the bible or do hands on learning with them.)
I’m hoping and praying that my oldest kids will come back to God, but I know that I didn’t do my part to really teach them that they need Jesus Christ to save them. Please don’t make the same mistake.