Practice what you preach.

We should indeed do so. In a world with skewed thoughts on Christianity and false gospels around every corner, we must be careful to test the spirits and educate ourselves on true faith.

In a world of hostility towards our faith, we must be battle ready and approved workers.

No so long ago, I had all small children underfoot. Just learning the ins and outs of motherhood, I dove head first into sleepless nights fussing over the proper education, the proper medical care, and the right way to proceed in faith training. Life and learning were so important, but faith was much more and I needed to proceed with caution and discernment.

At a family event I was talking to a relative about the future of our children’s education and how faith intertwined with curriculum was important. My role as a mother was to oversee religious training and guidance throughout their childhood and providing a good launch into adulthood. Secular education was not an option for us. Our relative told me that I was the one who wasn’t in the right in this thinking and that it was our church’s place to provide religious training and not us. We were not the educated clergy or pastors, but only the parents who oversee discipline and homework.

As easily as I wanted to scoff and jab back an emotional response, without a verse in hand, I did calmly state that it is the parents job to teach the children their faith and the church’s job to refine that faith. We learn it in the home and then extend outward from there.

Proverbs 22:6 ESV

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

And when you think about training up a child and discerning through life, this verse apply to all of us. We all start as children in faith at all ages. Our training can start at three years old or 43 years old. Once we grab on to the true knowledge of the Gospel, our knowledge begins and we move forward from there. It takes wisdom to see the importance of our convictions and responsibilities start.

We wade through some tough things in our Christian walk. Many oppressive thoughts are out there in the faith community that are easily thrown at us as firery arrows by the enemy. The lies from the enemy are used in conjunction with the lack of unity in the church to belittle and bring us down. Keeping the Lord’s Word at hand in the home as a first resort is of utmost priority.

Proverbs 1:7

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Grabbing on to the awe that the Lord inspires in us will lead us in wisdom into a life that glorifies Him in all that we do. Be it that we are raising little ones in the way of the Lord or guiding a friend in our golden age to His saving mercies, training starts close at hand and not behind closed classroom doors.

Find all posts from the series 31 Days of Biblical Truths here.