Disclaimer, I want to be clear that parenting our kids is terrifying at times. I look at the world we live in with its fallen nature, sinful callings, and morally bankrupt worldviews and don’t even know where to start. I believe that, at its core, parenting is the practice of daily, moment by moment, taking every opportunity with our children to teach them who God is and expose them to the gospel. (which is done with the hope of seeing them come to faith as disciples of Christ)

The responsibility of discipling our children is overwhelming. We all live busy lives with hectic schedules. We know that the Bible teaches us that it is primarily OUR responsibility, not our friend’s, family’s, or neighbors’,  to disciple our children. The problem is, we don’t exactly know what precisely we are supposed to be doing. We know that things like church attendance, family worship time, and similar practices are good, but is that all there is to it? Yet in the midst of our business, our children’s souls hang in the balance. We are not tasked with saving them, but we are commanded to disciple them.

I think that, before we can make disciples, we need to know what it means to be a disciple. Discipleship is an incredibly complex concept. The first question that needs to be answered is: “what is the biblical definition of a disciple?”. I think it can be summed up as a follower. Remeber that when Jesus chose the 12 men whom he would spend the next three years pouring into and ultimately handing over the mission of reaching the nations. His first command to them was simple, he met them where they were and said: ” follow me.” This obedience was not easy, however, as they had to leave behind their previous occupations to follow him. It was not an easy call, many of them died horrific deaths as they followed their Lord and Savior, but it was worth it.

To be a follower is to be obedient, it is to trust, it is to submit to the will of the one being followed, and in so doing to be transformed into His image. And these summarize, in a somewhat simple manner, what we want for our children. We want them to come to know God, as revealed in His word. We want them to obey His commands and to love Christ. We desire for our children to have a personal relationship with God and to grow in their trust of Him. In the midst of a world that will try to conform them to its image, we want our children to be transformed into the image of Christ.

The second vital foundation in discipleship is understanding that this is a matter of the heart. Our goal is not just to change their behavior, but to see their hearts transformed. We need to keep this at the forefront of our minds because the “simple solution” in moments of business or conflict is to focus on our kid’s behavior. We need to fight this tendency and remember that we have a much larger and glorious calling. Discipleship is proactive. We seek not to merely react  So we are to raise our children as people that follow Jesus, His commands, His Word, and serve His church. The question is: how do we do that?