Parenting Day 19: If You Could Export Only One Thing To Your Child

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Life Over Coffee Devotions

• 31-Day Marriage Devotion
• 31-Day Parenting Devotion
• 31-Day Young Adult Devotion

By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible (Hebrews 11:27).

After all these years of counseling and all the trouble I’ve seen in people’s lives, it has become more real to me than ever how we need a better worldview and foundation on which to land when we fall. Learning how to fall well is God’s mercy to us. God is the only person who can accurately answer the why question after you fall. The Lord is your best answer when trouble comes, and if you do not know Him well, your suffering will be more complicated than it needs to be.

The most oft-repeated appeal in the Bible, either explicit or implied, is “fear not.” The Lord is always calling His people to trust Him. You cannot fully trust someone you do not know, which is your call to elevate your theology—the study of God—above all else. If we could export one thing to our children, we would choose theology as the main thing, which is what we did when they were younger. We wanted them to walk into their adult lives knowing God, and out of that knowledge, our hope was for them to enjoy every good thing the Bible offers to theologically-centered God-lovers. If they don’t have sound theology—understanding God—what will grow out of their lives will not be the best it could be. I’m not talking about having Bible knowledge, as in knowing the facts of the Bible. I’m talking about knowing God.

• If they are going to have strong faith, they must know God well.
• If they are going to live practical lives, they must know God.
• If they are going to love others the right way, they must know God correctly.

We wanted our children to know the Lord, His person, character, attributes, and all the things He can do. We hoped that when real-life problems confront them, they could endure them because they could perceive their great invisible God. Thus, we spent a lot of time teaching our children a sound theology. Here is a list of some of the terms that we taught them when they were young. The list goes from left to right as it moves through a sequence of who God is and what He does for His children. They first learned the term theology as they became theologians. Then, they began learning about God.

The weakness of too many Christians is their need for more theological depth. Nobody taught them theology; their parents didn’t teach them; their youth groups didn’t instruct them. They were actively part of a church but not practically engaging in theology. Some parents and youth leaders seem to have a theological timidity as if children are too ignorant, immature, or disinterested to learn theological truths about God. It’s not true. Our kids were encouraged and motivated when the big people in the room let them into their adult world of big words like the hypostatic union. They perceived our respect, love, care for, and trust in them, which created an eagerness in them to learn more about God. The problem was not their lack of capacity to learn but our lack of awareness regarding the opportunity before us and the lack of intentionality to step into that opportunity.

Time to Parent

1. Give your children a good view of who God is and what He can do. They need to know Him more than they need to know anything else in life, and from that foundation, you can equip them with all of the other things they will need to know to be mature, God-loving adults.

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Rick Thomas

Rick launched the Life Over Coffee global training network in 2008 to bring hope and help for you and others by creating resources that spark conversations for transformation. His primary responsibilities are resource creation and leadership development, which he does through speaking, writing, podcasting, and educating.

In 1990 he earned a BA in Theology and, in 1991, a BS in Education. In 1993, he received his ordination into Christian ministry, and in 2000 he graduated with an MA in Counseling from The Master’s University. In 2006 he was recognized as a Fellow of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC).