Homebuilders — Life is a Classroom

Life is a Classroom

-Teaching and are in process twenty-four hours a day.

-The danger: in the absence of informative instruction, secular formative instructors take over.

Colossians 2:8 Beware (open your eyes!) lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

-The majority culture’s unbiblical philosophies are like the air you breathe—you internalize them without even them.

-How can parents compete with the world for the minds and hearts of their children?

2 Basic Answers:

1. the Enemy and Acknowledge His Troop Strength

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8)

-This battle takes place of us (James 4:1) and outside of us (Eph. 6:12).

-Too often, sincere Christians feed and house the enemy (secular culture) and feel they can somehow contain its influence on their family (James 4:4).

*We cannot the secular culture into our homes and expect its voice not to be compelling to us or our children.

A. instructs in our majority culture?

-Celebrities tell us how to act…Experts tell us how to understand life…Electronic media socializes our culture…Advertisers reach their target audience through .

-The world gets it! Shaping ideas requires long-term interaction with long-range goals and 100 percent saturation.

B. What do they teach?

-It’s the same message for every generation—ME!

–I deserve…I want…I will be happy if…I can’t live without…

-Enemy’s Major themes:

a. and traditional values are repulsive

b. Sensual appetites can be satisfied of God’s way

c. Cynicism is the appropriate response

C. Are we aware of their deception?

-The world’s curriculum is sophisticated, persuasive, and tactile—bent on engaging the idol factories of our hearts.

-Spend some time meditating on Psalm 1.

2. Become Skilled at Using Formative Biblical Instruction as Offensive and Defensive Weapons Against the Enemy of our Children’s Souls (Ephesians 6:10-17)

-Formative instruction gives children principles and absolutes by which to live—to hang life on—will they be biblical hooks or culture’s hooks?

-Romans 12:2 sums up our responsibility to biblically formatively instruct:

And be not conformed to this world: (Identify the enemy) but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind (Biblical Instruction), that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

-Meditate on the promised victory: 1 Cor. 15:57-58; 1 Pet. 5:9-10

A. formative instruction is important.

-The home is an environment where children are constantly learning.

*Our response, whether instruction or silence, teaches. Our behavior and our lives teach.

-We must actively teach our children—from infancy to adulthood—to love God with their whole being and to love others as self. (Matthew 22:37-39)

B. God has spoken.

-It is God’s Words that teach how to understand human knowledge and experience in the light of His existence and His involvement in our world.

-Formative instruction is rooted in Scripture—not Dr. Phil or Parents magazine.

C. Parents must .

-We have a divinely appointed task to tell of God’s works to the next generation. (Psalm 145:4)

-This is not memorized declaration, but speaking from life’s foundation.

D. Formative instruction and discipline are not the same thing.

-If the only time we instruct is when our children need discipline, our children will not listen to our instruction for of the discipline.

-Corrective discipline without adequate formative instruction breeds confusion and rebellion.

E. The Bible is a treasure—not a baseball bat.

-If you beat up your children with God’s Word, they may shrink from it when they are young and from it when they live independently. (Eph. 6:4)

*Taken from Instructing a Child’s Heart by Tedd & Margy Tripp