Building The Strategic Home“Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Proverbs 22:6
This is a continuation of the lesson sent two weeks ago so please review “Responsibilities to Embrace for our Children.”
Does your parenting seem to be ruled by your nerves? I know how often I was so reactive to what was happening in my children’s lives and so my parenting became a series of stimulus and responses. There were days I looked like a video game! Where there is no vision, the will to parent biblically quickly shrivels.
As much as I wanted to create the future for my children, a sovereign God rules. However, we can influence the future of our children for either good or bad. We know that God is good as He sees, supervises and leads us to His program for our family but we also live under His law that we will reap what we sow.
The consideration of goals for our family and children are a means to make plans knowing that God will establish our steps. Proper goals will help lead our children and family to live in the Gospel that saves, to understand how the Holy Spirit continues to sanctify us, to learn service, and to teach our children how to suffer well.
This lesson will give you some considerations and examples for goal setting. This is not just for parenting but the establishment of goals for your family are great tools as well. In the following weeks I will present a model of goal setting by one of our Faith Bible Church families who took this lesson to heart in the past and then what my wife, Deb, and I did several years ago for our household.
Have you considered seriously what you want your child to look like when they are 18 years old? Here are a series of questions to answer:
1. What is the greatest thing you want your child to know and understand?
2. Choose 3 things from the book of Proverbs that you want your children to know?
3. Using the previous lesson on ““Responsibilities to Embrace for our Children,” what are 3 goals you would have?
4. How do you want your children to deal with the problems of life?
5. How do you want your children to learn to deal with other people?
6. How do you want your children to understand work?
7. How do you want your children to respond to your requests?
8. How do you want your children to respond to authority?
9. How do you want your children to respond to sin?
Examples of goals that answer these questions:
1. To properly fear God – understanding the attributes of God such as almighty, holy, omnisciencent, etc;
2. To understand what is a Christ-centered home not a child-centered home
3. To understand that we all we stand before God and give an account, every word and deed
4. To understand the effects of the fall of mankind upon us. They are prone to sin and I want them humbled by the grace of God
5. To understand the danger of trusting our own hearts. To learn not to do things by feelings when God’s Word says to do something.
6. To know how to seek answers to the problems of life – The Word of God
7. To trust God for daily living. That they know that God’s mercies are new each morning, His grace sufficient every day to face whatever comes their way.
8. To know the richest treasures of life are Jesus Christ and God’s Word.
9. To know how to repent of sin and ask for forgiveness. This is what will bring wholeness, healing and restoration.
10. To know how to know God through worship. The greatest joy we have is to enjoy God.
11. To know how to express love to others through manners and acts of kindness. It is to fulfill the commandment to “love others as you love yourself.”
12. To do their work diligently at home, school, or the workplace for God. To learn to do it with joy for it is a gift from God.
13. To cheerfully obey their parents the first time. To find joy in obedience.
14. To respect and honor their parents first and then all other authority over them. To learn this is so it will go well with them.
15. To suffer the natural consequences of sinful and irresponsible behavior. To learn the natural and established laws of life.
16. To protect themselves from bad influences. To learn to identify them and stay away.
17. To understand that they will not always get their way so they will learn not to be so self-centered.
18. To understand their given role of a man or woman. To learn that the roles are distinctive and not to conform to a confused secular view.
Great job on Friday night with the Faith Family Forum. Also, a big thanks to everyone who helped out and served the body of Christ in this manner. Have begun working on living intentionally, identifying my rocks, and eliminating some of those pebbles. This is a great way to build the Faith community and Kristin and I are looking forward to the May event.
Alexa Arbogast and Tim McEwen leading worship
Tyler Engel dishing out some door prizes as emcee 
Pastor George teaching us about priorities with his rock illustration 
