Shepherding a Child’s Heart (In the Hood)
I added “in the Hood” only because we live here, but these principles are meant for all children and all people anywhere!
This Sunday a new series was began called “Shepherding a Child’s Heart.” My wife had read the book and given me the highlights and little did I know, in sitting in on the course that I was going to be convicted so greatly at my own lack as a father.
So often people use different tactics for behavior modification for their children, sometimes it’s guilt, anger, manipulation of some sort in order to get the correct behavior. People bribe their children, they contend with them harshly at times for their disobedience but how often do we look at each act of disobedience to take our children to the cross. I have been guilty of these things at different times.
One of the greatest statements made in the first video series was something like this, if we work on modifying behaviors to get what we want and train our children to do the same, we make them into little pharisees.
I realized that Jack Colwell in our adult Sunday School course for the past several months had been teaching us these very same things. We had a class I remember distinctly because it spoke at the different ways we behave in our marriages with our “carving tools”, carving out our own idols. We often use all of these tactics, Pharisaical self-righteousness, desired approval by others, anger, self-love, rebellion, to meet our own needs or carve out our own idols, and Ted Tripp in the same way is helping us understand what makes a child tick is no different than what causes foolish and Godless behavior to take place in adults. It is a literal overflow of the heart.
We often see these issues, and want to fix or band-aid the problem by fixing the symptom and not the real issues what’s really causing the contention which is “The Heart.” We don’t see issues as an opportunity to kill pride and cultivate humility but we in our frustration allow our pride to rule as we strike out to carve our new idol to fit our idea of what’s right. We fail to see that the remedy for these things is truly the gospel, and the cross.
The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. – Luke 6:45
He said another telling statement that now in this day and age, because society no longer has a Christian World View as a norm, we must contend or spend time, much more time informing our children about the world around them from a biblical world view.
“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” -Proverbs 4:23
Purchase Here: Shepherding a Child’s Heart: DVD Series
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