Answers
By BGEA Admin • February 8, 2023 • Topics: Parenting
Q:
My husband and I divorced when our children were small. Now they’re young teenagers and my husband and I have decided to give our marriage another try. We both were saved recently and are learning things we didn’t know years ago. We’re anxious to make corrections and redo this right. How does one set their lives in order as the Bible says?
A:
From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham
God instituted marriage, the family, and the home where the basic lessons of life are learned. Home should be a sanctuary, a place of discipline, safety, peace, and love—not bedlam or confusion. It is doubtful a home can be truly happy unless Christ is the center of the home.
It takes time, discipline, patience, and skill to set a house in order, but God says that it is an essential we cannot shun (see Isaiah 38:1). We find wise instruction in Deuteronomy 6:7–9: “Teach [My words] diligently to your children … talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up … write them on the doorposts of your house.” This is a beautiful picture of making God’s Word the center of home life, and oh, what a difference it will make.
The word discipline means “to teach.” Teaching has been too long left to schoolteachers and coaches. Parents are to teach their children by precept and example to be loving members of the household, good citizens of the community, faithful members of the church, and—most importantly—obedient followers of Jesus Christ. This pleases God. Parents have their children a few short years. Instill in them love for the Lord; there is no greater investment that can be made.
(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)
