Thorburn Family

There are people from different walks of life, religious beliefs, and lifestyles who read this blog (a mine-field! LOL).   Well, this is a heads-up that I am going to use our blog over the next week to write down some things that have helped us in teaching our children, because this subject is coming up over and over again in conversations lately.   Ours has been a very imperfect journey so far, we have made some big blunders, but it’s been filled with God’s grace and help.  Over the next week or so, I plan to just quickly run-down what we have done and are doing as far as training children in the Scriptures.  I’d love you to share your methods and resources as well so we can learn from each other.   

First, it seems important to state upon what premises we are operating, what our goals are (and aren’t).  Three things:

1) We are banking on the fact that the Bible is the infallible Word of God and that everything God wants us to know pertaining to living life and knowing God, as well as answers for eternity, can be found here.   Nothing we are pursuing is original.  We believe that being able to handle God’s Word well is one of the most important tools we can give our children, so this is a top priority in the list of our goals in parenting and education.    We don’t worship the Bible.   It is the way to know God’s character and His will for our lives, so we can worship Him.   

2) On Results:  We pray for & expect various types of results from training our children in the Scriptures. We are thankful that God has seen fit to use it mightily in our children’s lives thus far for their good.  However, we aren’t doing it primarily for results, and the results can’t be “results” for us, or they just become an idol.   Any results we see at any time are a work of God alone, perhaps using some of the means we are employing, but it is all by Him, through Him, and to Him.   We believe our bottom-line duty as parents is to bring God glory on this earth, and we perform that effort by God’s grace alone.   We would love to see each of our children walk with Jesus their entire life and live with Him forever.  If we spend 18 years proclaiming the glory of God to our children and appealing to them by every method to love and serve their Creator.. and in the end they reject the truth and go their own way, our efforts will not have been in vain (and we’ll deeply love them regardless!).   Proclaiming the glory and majesty of God and giving children every tool to know Him and their duty to Him is an end in itself.. God is glorified and He is worthy of this, and yes, many many times it is the means God uses to draw our children to Himself,  and we have great reason to hope for that.   So, we plead with our children, we appeal to them, train them, using every good means possible to commend the gospel to their hearts. We show them deep affection and transmit to them that this true love is what has come out of our own relationship with Jesus Christ.  We let them observe the way He is changing us by His grace.  We pray for the Spirit of God to light the fire and start a work in their own hearts.  And we do even these things imperfectly as we are growing along the way ourselves!  But at every turn from the start to the last… we want to find our satisfaction in Christ, not in our parenting journey or in the “fruit of our hands,” and bow the knee to the plans and will of God. We don’t know what the future holds for our children but we know He is sovereign, and good.   We can trust Him, period.  So, as we seek to apply Biblical principles and directions to the training of our children, it is not about being entirely pragmatic (though we want to carefully consider the best paths), but rather, simply seeking to do our duty as parents as we seek to live satisfied in Christ. 

3)  We believe it is very hard to train a child in the Scriptures and in anything good, really, unless you have first trained them to listen to your quiet, first-time word.   So, from babyhood, basic child-training is a priority.    When our children were small, we were blessed with great teachers in this area, and we have praised God many times for having those counselors and examples in front of us.   We watched people, watched families, asked questions, took truck-loads of advice from worthy, biblical advisors, and prayed a lot — and that journey is far from over for us.   We have held onto this verse as a compass:  Hebrews 13:7: “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God.  Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.”  So, we watch, consider, imitate.  A child who can sit contentedly, whose body can come to rest and relax during story time, and who will obey your quiet, sweet directions for them.. is a child who can be taught more lofty ideas at a young age, and a child with whom you can likely build a close relationship.  If you must grab a child’s attention with a dancing vegetable to teach them anything about God (sorry, Veggie Tales :)), or wrestle with them on every point, you will miss out on using some better resources with your children that require a more mature habit of conduct to absorb. Children are far more capable than modern society imagines, and we do them a disservice if we don’t train their habits & tastes early.   A note on this:  Three of our children are adopted:  Jubilee came at age 4.5, Jesse came at age 6.5, and Benjamin was 4.5    None of them (with the exception of Jesse for his first year out of the Russian orphanage where he lived with another Christian family) had any prior training.   All I can say is that they come along quickly.   God is gracious and He’s blessed every effort.  It is a great joy to hear Benjamin excitedly asking, nearly every day, “Is it Home Fellowship day?”  ”Is today the Lord’s Day?”… and hearing him recite the Books of the Bible in order and a few hymns, and working on memorizing the first chapter of James.   It’s been the same with all our children, even though there might be some special obstacles with children adopted as non-infants.   God has also given special grace for this and doesn’t leave us hanging with no answers.

So, if this subject interests you, stay tuned for a few posts about specific methods for training our children in the Bible, a couple resources we like & are using, and (if I can pull it off), relaying tidbits we’ve been taught about steering children into deep involvement w/their local church family & devotion to the preached Word.   And feel free to jump in!