The Family: You
and Your Children
Psalm 127:1-5
1 A song of ascents. Of Solomon.
Unless the Lord builds the house,
its builders labor in vain on it;
unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchman keeps vigil in vain.
2 In vain do you rise early
and stay up late,
you who toil for the bread you eat;
He provides as much for His loved
ones while they sleep.
3 Sons are the provision of the Lord;
the fruit of the womb, His reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a
warrior
are sons born to a man in his youth.
5 Happy is the man who fills his
quiver with them;
they shall not be put to shame
when they contend with the enemy in
the gate.
Psalm 128:1-6
1 A song of ascents.
Happy are all who fear the Lord,
who follow His ways.
2 You shall enjoy the fruit of your
labors;
you shall be happy and you shall
prosper.
3 Your wife shall be like a fruitful
vine within your house;
your sons, like olive saplings around
your table.
4 So shall the man who fears the Lord be blessed.
5 May the Lord bless you from Zion;
may you share the prosperity of
Jerusalem
all the days of your life,
6 and live to see your children’s
children.
May all be well with Israel!
Proverbs 22:6
6 Train a lad in the way he ought to
go;
He will not swerve from it even in
old age.
Proverbs 23:13-14
13 Do not withhold discipline from a
child;
If you beat him with a rod he will
not die.
14 Beat him with a rod
And you will save him from the grave.
[1]
Ephesians 6:1-4
Children, obey your parents in the
Lord: for this is right. 2 Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first
commandment with promise;) 3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest
live long on the earth. 4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath:
but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Deuteronomy 5:16
16 Honour thy father and thy mother,
as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and
that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. [2]
Hebrews 12:1-11
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded
by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the
sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is
set before us, 2 looking to Jesus the
pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at
the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Consider him who endured such
hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose
heart. 4 In your struggle against sin
you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation
that addresses you as children—
“My child, do not regard lightly the
discipline of the Lord,
or lose heart when you are punished
by him;
6 for the Lord disciplines those whom
he loves,
and chastises every child whom he
accepts.”
7 Endure trials for the sake of
discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a
parent does not discipline? 8 If you do
not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate
and not his children. 9 Moreover, we
had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be
even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time
as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we
may share his holiness. 11 Now,
discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it
yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by
it. [3]