Discipling Your Children

Sep 18, 2013 by Jim and Jerolyn Bogear

Jerolyn recently wrote about life and schedule of back to school for many families. One of the questions we asked ourselves, and the question we ask you is how are you discipling your children? Jerolyn mentioning discipleship in her blog, but let’s look at it a little deeper.

What is discipleship or disciple-making? This is an ongoing discussion across churches around the world, but let’s look at this specifically as part of parenting our children. They should be the first ones we focus on in discipling. They must be a priority. Discipleship is the development of someone spiritually to help them become more like Christ. Christ taught us to follow His teaching and to model our life to be more like Him. We do this by living out the Christian life through reading and studying God’s Word, praying, and following the teachings of Christ. In fact in the book of Matthew, which is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible, there is what is known as The Sermon on the Mount. This was taught by Jesus and gives us guidance to living as He directs. He is very specific in this text about the “character” of a “disciple.” His teaching is clear as to how we are to live.

In fact Ghandi is quoted as saying that he read The Sermon on the Mount everyday. He said it was neither Christ nor His teaching that deterred him from being a Christian; rather it was the example (or should I say lack thereof) of Christ’s “disciples” or followers.

Anyway, back to discipleship. We wanted to instill those biblical values of walking after Christ within our own children. We talk about discipleship in the church world, but often is a simple program or book we take people through.  This is a life-long process for all of us, but what should we intentionally be doing in this arena of developing our children and helping them live out this value? We wanted, just like our family values, to raise, train, and model what it is to be a Christ follower and live it out everyday. Devotion, loving God with everything you’ve got, every fiber of your being, is one of our family values. In fact it is the first one because it needs to be the first one of priority for us.

For us as our children got older, we attempted to make this process age appropriate, like some basic Bible verses in the beginning, then walking them through a discipleship process which at times included a book study. When we determined they were ready, and this varied with each child, we walked them through a pre-teen discipleship set of lessons. There are a variety of these available for you to choose. It isn’t simply a book to cover and check off that someone has been discipled, but it does help to use these resources to cover specific areas of growth.

Although this is a life-long process, there are still markers and steps along the way to help us help others in their spiritual journey. With our children we wanted the spiritual disciplines and teaching to be a vital part of their maturity and growth. We wanted to do our best to model and train them in following Christ. As we plan for our children and want to help them develop and grow in many areas…that is what parenting is all about, to raise them to release them as fully functioning adults to add value as a young adult into society and to go and make a difference in this world. We believe that part of the plan is discipleship. It is a priority. Many others have done this far better than us. We simply challenge, and encourage you to make a plan and help your children become those Christ followers Jesus taught.

• What plan do you have in place for discipleship in your home?
• What are some ways for you to make sure spiritual development happens along with physical, emotional, and educational growth in your children?

~Jim