Leading by Example

As a parent, I’m mindful that my influence in the lives of my children is a powerful thing. Parents typically want to do all they can to encourage their children toward heaven. Timothy was a significant figure in the early Christian church, and he received his example of faithfulness to God from his mother and grandmother.

Lois and Eunice are mentioned in the Bible because the faith they lived guided a young man to a life in Christ. Many people have told me they are Christians today due to the influence of a godly parent or grandparent.

There are many engaged in full-time ministry who can confidently say it was a praying parent or grandparent or a family member who sacrificed to make church school possible, who was the difference between a life of faith and a life of faithlessness. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of parents and grandparents in the spiritual development of children. Parents especially have the solemn responsibility of not only teaching children biblical principles but also modeling those principles so that Christianity becomes attractive to children. Far too many children who were raised in the church and in a Christian home have left the church and walked away from God because they failed to see Christianity demonstrated in the lives of their parents.

Children aren’t attracted to a Christianity that doesn’t make a difference in the lives of their parents. If public Christians are private tyrants, the majority of children are going to see Christianity as the domain of hypocrites and failures.

God isn’t asking anyone to be a perfect parent.

Parenting is too difficult a science for anyone to master completely and consistently. But parents who humbly love God, gently share Jesus, and —as did Lois and Eunice— reveal to children the beauty of the Scriptures and the character of God are doing the greatest work ever committed to human beings.