Child-Training: Advice from an Older Mom, Part 1

This is a talk on Child-training that I gave to a group of women who were attending a "Titus 2 Day" at our church.  I hope it will be a help and an encouragement to you.  I would love to hear any questions or thoughts you might have on this topic!

"The 2 most important character qualities to teach your children are:  Attentiveness and Obedience

The 3 legs of your stool of child-training are:
Your Training, Your Example and Your Prayer

If any of the three legs is quite a bit shorter than the others, your stool will fall over: We must train them, but also do and be what we say we want them to do and be; and most of all, we must be on our knees diligently praying for our children.

Fast and pray...for your children, your husband, your marriage and family and your church
If I could only tell you ten things that are, to me, the most important, this would be my list of the

Top Ten Things to Focus On
1) Quiet Time: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. Read the Bible through every year, memorize it, sit at the Lord’s feet, pour out your heart to Him. He must be most important in your whole life and everything you teach your children must be centered on loving Him first and foremost in their lives.


2) Consistency. What are the things your children will say, “My mother always did this...(or said this)”? (They most definitely will remember things you said!) Choose them. And make sure they’re Biblical. And important. Repeat them often and work on having these as the thread that runs through your whole life. Strive for increasing consistency in Christlikeness.


3) Strive for increasing order. This is a life-long challenge for me. “It’s not where you are, but what direction you’re going that’s important.”


4) Be committed to sitting down at the table without distractions for at least one family meal a day. I’m amazed at the number of families that don’t do this.


5) We are called “stay-at-home moms”—Stay at home. When my children were younger we decided that 2 nights of planned weekly activities per week was the maximum we would commit to. I started out Homeschooling thinking my children needed all the extracurricular activities and opportunities and “socialization,” but soon learned that is the road to disorder, strife at home, worldliness and developing wrong appetites in my children and me. Being home most days allowed us to see--and deal with--character issues in our children and ourselves. It also allowed us to establish a routine—children thrive on routine—it made them more happy and contented little people. It strengthened family relationships and turned hearts to their father, allowing us to train them in hard work and skills that they needed to learn. We were able to be companions of the wise: real people, but also Godly characters in great books we read together aloud. (Proverbs describes the wanton woman whose feet are never at home—I don’t want to have anything in common with her.)

In Part 2, I will continue with numbers 6-10

of my list of The Top Ten Things.