How do you get your children to want to obey Yahweh? My children are making worldy decisions and doing things that really worry me. I don't want to get in Yahweh's way, but I long to see a repentant spirit in them. What can I do?
ANSWER:
First of all, I think you would agree that your problem didn't just start. I don't say this to be hurtful, but it began when your children were very little with the training they received. No doubt, you DID train them. You either trained them up in the way that they were supposed to go, or by default, they were trained to go otherwise. There is a common misconception, which is actually the devil's lie, and that is that we are not supposed to "push" our children into committing their lives to Yahweh, but rather wait patiently and pray that it will happen so that we don't get in YAHWEH's way. If we sit around like this, we are not getting in satan's way. We are giving him free reign and we are not doing the job that Yahweh said we were supposed to do in training up our children in the way that they SHOULD go so that, even when they are old, (promise coming up here....) they WILL NOT DEPART FROM IT.
As parents we have a responsibility to be diligent in not only teaching our children Yahweh's ways as we walk by the way, as we lie down, and as we rise up (daily), but also in guarding their hearts until they are spiritually mature enough to guard their own hearts. We need to keep close supervision over who they are or are not around. This INCLUDES within the assemblies, too. We firmly believe that sometimes the children within the assembly are even more of a threat to good training and guidance than are children "of the world". How? If we let our guard down and assume that because they go to assembly with us and their parents profess Yahweh that we don't need to be concerned about negative influences. If this is what we think, we would do well to think again.
We need to have close fellowship with our children in order to gain their hearts (and them gain ours). This means being at home together as they grow up. Home education, yes, but not just so-titled. We need to be literally "home"....alot! We need time to learn together, work together, talk, sing, and pray together, taking time to tie heart strings together.
We don't watch television.....none. We don't belong to a homeschooling co-op. As the Mom, I stay home full time. My husband has his own business, in which he apprenticed our son when he was old enough so that he could not only teach him a valuable trade, but so that he could impart to him the even more valuable concept of self employment, and so that they could be together day by day to share the precious time together in each other's presence and in Yahweh's presence. We are blessed to have two grown daughters content to stay at home, too, not just when they are married someday (Yahweh willing), but UNTIL that time comes. We aren't sending any of them to a worldly college or university, not even a compromising "Christian" College, nor do they have any desire whatsoever to go to those places themselves. If they did, we wouldn't let go of their reigns until they understood for themselves why they would NEVER want to partake of the world's unclean things. I don't know your stand on these types of issues, but I am sharing with you ours in hopes to be of help and encouragement.
Let me say that you can't make change without making changes....many times RADICAL changes.
We trained our children from little up as though KNOWING YAHWEH would assuredly be as much a part of their young lives as much as LEARNING TO TALK. Yes, they will eventually be mature enough to choose the right decisions for themselves, but we don't sit back wringing our hands in hopelessness if they haven't reached that point yet by their 18th birthday. An article which we highly recommend is "The 18 Year Old Myth". I encourage you to read it. It's a gem. To read it, Click Here.
I wish you peace and blessings and JOY. Nothing is impossible with Yahweh. He can (and does) give beauty for ashes.