Our duties as mothers spur us on to obedience to Christ!

We have had a few weeks off, but are continuing in The Duties of Parents, by JC Ryle, tomorrow, Lord willing.

During our last conversation, we began item number 4:

Train with this thought continually before your eyes -- that the soul of your child is the first thing to be considered.

[This article and discussion applies most obviously to moms, however there is a note for single or childless sisters at the end. ]

Further down, he puts it another way:

In every step you take about them, in every plan, and scheme, and arrangement that concerns them, do not leave out that mighty question, "How will this affect their souls?"

How will this affect their souls? That is a heavy thought.

In fact, we might think it's just too heavy.

That is because it confounds most of popular parenting viewpoints, which often relegates training for adulthood (let alone eternity!) to a fuzzy future date (if at all!), and leaves the bulk of childhood as a time of fleeting, disposable happiness.

Even a popular christian parenting expert, years ago, advised parents to allow their children believe in certain childhood myths, because the dreary reality of life would eventually set in one day, so let them have their fun now.

To this thought, we ask, how will that affect their souls? Is it possible that we might lead our children to be discontent with the realities of the life God has for them?

The same can be said about so many things in our lives.

Now, is this being hyper-paranoid? Type A? Will it leave us stuck in bed, wondering which side of the bed we should get up on?

Well, if it has that effect on us, may I suggest that it is probably because we naturally are influenced by the world's ideas? We are influenced by their ideas of proper parenting, proper childhood experiences, and what is "normal" (which changes each year, for a "normal" childhood now is very different from what we experienced, and even moreso from what our great grandparents experienced). Our culture tells us everything pertaining to children must be first of all fun, fantastic, and largely based on fluff.

So our culture and many of our own experiences give us no context for applying the scripture's instruction to our role as moms. We think to do so is too heavy, too serious, lifeless.

Uh-oh. Didn't Jesus tell us:

I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved,

and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:

I am come that they might have life,

and that they might have it more abundantly.

John 10:9, 10

Why, yes, he did!

However, without setting that aside for a minute, we've already been instructed plenty of times to make EVERYTHING count for God's glory!

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink,

or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

1 Cor 10:31

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:17

If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

1 Peter 4:11

And whatsoever you do,

do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;

Col 3:23

We have to realize that there should be no disconnect of these commands to our role as parents. So it really does follow to ask, "How will this affect their souls?"

Because, how will this affect their souls? is just one of many out workings of these commands.

It is a heavy thought -- but for that matter, so is the gospel.

Plus, by having this concern ever before us, we are drawn to obedience to many other commands:

Look not every man on his own things,

but every man also on the things of others.

Phil 2:4

Well, that addresses many attitudes and actions in my day. After all, who are the others God has put in my life? If it is my own children, that is who it is.

And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me,

it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck,

and he were cast into the sea.

Matt 9:42

Again, this steers me away from much that is not all for the glory of Christ! It should keep me searching my heart, for areas in my thoughts, words and deeds that could cause my children to think lightly of sin, to excuse it.

Many older parents have expressed how it was having children that God used to awaken them to many areas of compromise or unfruitful deeds or pursuits or affections that would not be a good example for their children.

And here, again, is one of the wonderful designs God has for the family: parents are not in a static state of perfection, ever pouring that perfection into their children. God knows our frailty and sin, and he has set up the family as a means for us to DEAL with it, because there are others at stake.

For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.

For whether we live, we live unto the Lord;

and whether we die, we die unto the Lord:

whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.

Romans 14:7,8

Now, if you look up those verses in context, you will find it has no apparent application to parenting, and yet the spirit of its teaching has much to do with parenting! There is no disconnect if we are the Lord's, because we don't live to ourselves but to the Lord.

We have a high calling as mothers because we have a high calling as disciples of Jesus Christ.

[Now, if you are not a wife or mother, you are still obligated as a disciple of Christ to test each word or deed and see that it is glorifying to Christ. Ask the Lord to help you discern areas of your life where the culture or your experiences have led you to act as if "do all to the glory of God" does not really apply.]

Realizing these things is one thing, doing them is quite another. Yet, it is a first step towards being what we need to become. Let's go for it!

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect:

but I follow after,

if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended:

but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind,

and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

I press toward the mark for the prize

of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:12-14