Isaac, he was sent away to Haran. The idea was for him to get away from Esau’s wrath and find a suitable wife. When he arrived in Haran he got much more than he bargained for – figuratively and literally.

Sadly, some parents fail to do what God has charged them to do.

Fathers

Fathers fail when they do not lead in the home. When a father’s interest is more focused on himself and worldly pursuits, he has neglected his duty to be a spiritual leader as God would have it.

Overbearing or uncaring fathers are a disgrace. In the name of “I am the authority here” and “discipline” some fathers act as dictators. It is a perversion of God’s will and drives children away from the home and, often, the Lord.

When a man will not provide for his family, he is undermining the home. He is worse than an infidel and does not personally deserve to eat (1 Tim. 5:8; 2 Thes. 3:10). Frequently the children see this and either think that is how it is supposed to be (which is bad) or are bitter toward authority. It stays with them into adulthood.

Mothers

Mothers fail when they try to dominate and control the family. Instead of submitting to God by submitting to her husband’s lead, she puts her foot down (Eph. 5:22-24). Both sons and daughters become confused about God-give roles in marriage and the family. The cycle often continues through more than one generation.

Lazy mothers have a terrible impact on the home. The husband often does not want to come home to a messy house that is cluttered. The children become slobs and a menace to others later in life.

Women who resent the role God has bestowed on them as a mother or homemaker are a shame as well. It is a privilege to be in this position. It is a woman’s sphere of influence and glory (1 Tim. 2:15; Titus 2:3-5). She ought to embrace it, while rejecting society’s perverted standards.

How Is Your Home?

Are you failing as a father or mother? Do you see room for improvement? If we are honest with ourselves, we can all improve.

Spend time in the Word reading and meditating on the responsibilities God has given you. Some great passages to dwell on are Ephesians 5:22-33, 1 Peter 3:1-7, and Psalm 127.

Seek out advice from older Christians who you know have been successful in the home. Also go to those who have made mistakes and ask them what not to do (be careful with this one and make sure they are willing to talk about it). Great wisdom can be gleaned from those who have traveled this path before.

Finally, spend much time in prayer. Ask God’s guidance and wisdom in how to be a better husband or wife or parent. Pray that you will see your faults and have the determination and courage to face and fix them. You can do it with God’s help (Jas. 1:2-5).

This Bible study covers Galatians 1:10-24. In this section, Paul labors to defend his apostleship from the Judaizing teachers. He makes it abundantly clear that his apostleship did not come from men; it in fact could not have. Rather, Jesus Christ is the one who gave Paul the gospel and the authority to teach it.

This section of Genesis serves as a bridge between Abraham and Jacob. Isaac’s life is touched on, but not to any great extent. Moses moves quickly to focus on Jacob and his family, especially his son Joseph. There are numerous lessons to gain from this part of Bible history, including care in selecting a mate, parental involvement in the marriag of a child, and the impact of favoritism in a family.

Training

Parents have an obligation to train their children. The Bible says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). This is not an iron-clad guarantee. It is not set in concrete. The Proverbs are truisms for the most part. They state a general rule or obvious point; profound but simple. Some children stray regardless of the best raising.

If you train your child, though, there is a much greater likelihood that he or she will turn out good. They may stumble and fall along the way, but when they mature and come to realize the truth you taught them, the practical and valuable wisdom you passed on, they will do what’s right. If you do not train them, they will stand little chance. The world will step in and train them for you.

Fathers are especially charged with training their children in the ways of the Lord. “And you fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). Not only are fathers supposed to raise them to be good, hard working, upstanding citizens, but they are also to instill religious principles in them. Teach your children to respect God. Show them how to pray. Instruct them in Bible study. Etch the truth on their brains.

Discipline

Training a child includes discipline. There is exhortation and instruction on one hand, and rebuke and upbraiding on the other. The Bible endorses neither emotional nor physical abuse. Such is sin. What it does endorse is loving, caring discipline to shape and mold the character of a child.

“The rod and rebuke give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother” (Prov. 29:15).

“He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly” (Prov. 13:24).

Such training benefits both the child and the parents. The sooner parents begin training, the better. If a child is not brought under control, given boundaries that are enforced, at a very young age–before 2 or 3–it will be very difficult to train them at all.

Parents set down rules from love, though children may not fully understand this. The Lord chastens those He loves, and expects the same from parents (Heb. 12:5-11). No discipline means no love. It will help engender respect for authority that will go beyond the home.

It is worth noting that parents are the ones to judge the time, place, and appropriateness of the discipline. It is not the government’s job, nor the school system. They have no right of interference.

Grandparents, aunts, uncles, older siblings, and others should not be saddled with main responsibility of training the children. Yes, these may on a temporary basis be in charge of the care of a child, but it should not be so too frequently. God gave children to parents, not grandparents. Too many children are being raised by someone other than the parents and it is tragic. It is tragic for the children that their parents are not around. The same is true for the parents.

Proper discipline of a child will produce righteousness. “Blow that hurt cleanse away evil, as do stripes the inner depths of the heart” (Prov. 20:30). “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of correction will drive it far from him” (Prov. 22:15).

A tender heart and firm hand are what children need. If parents will be the kind of parents they ought to be, children will be the kind of children they ought to be–and we will all benefit.

Paul launches right into the heart of the matter in the opening paragraph of Galatians. He asserts his authority as an apostles of Christ, it is genuine, and briefly hammers home the idea that salvation is through Jesus, not Moses. This lesson covers the first nine verses of chapter one.

The majority of the Bible study focuses on the sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22. There are many lessons to learn from this account, including putting our absolute trust in God. He will never fail us.

Better families do not come from society. Television, movies, magazines, and Oprah do not have the answers we need. Families need to turn to the Word of God to improve. It is inspired of God, the One who made the family (2 Tim. 3:16, 17). The Bible has truth for all areas of our life (2 Pet. 1:3).

Parents Need To Teach Their Children

What

They need to teach the Word of God. Moses’ admonition will serve us well. He said,

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deut. 6:6-9).

We need to constantly teach them the principles of truth and righteousness. The devil does not let up and neither should we. Teach them when doing chores around the house and while driving in the car. Take advantage of opportunities the come up when watching TV or a movie. Instruct them at the mall while shopping or when at the ball field. Do not assume they get the point, make it clear.

Who

Fathers are given the charge to teach their children (Eph. 6:4). If there is a failure in the home on learning the Word, it falls directly on the father’s shoulders. It is his duty and he must fulfill it. Fathers, be a leader.

Mothers, too, can play a role. They will have opportunities the father will not. She needs to give time and attention to instilling biblical values in her children. Mothers need to teach their sons just as Timothy’s mother and grandmother taught him (2 Tim. 1:5; 3:15). Older women are supposed to teach the younger women (Titus 2:3-5). Does this not include mothers teaching daughters?

Why

Our children must be taught so they know the Lord. When they do not know the Lord, their world will be a miserable one where chaos rules (Jud. 2:10). Specifically, the gospel is God’s power unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). If they do not know it, they will not know the love of God and Christ. They will not have the hope of heaven and the fear of hell in their hearts. The very purpose of their existence will elude them (Ecc. 12:13, 14). Their souls will be lost.

This lesson wraps up Genesis 19 & the destruction of Sodom. The extent of Sodom’s influence on Lot’s family is highlighted. In Genesis 20-21, we mainly see Abraham’s dealings with Abimelech and the birth of Isaac.

The family is important because it is the initial learning place of right and wrong (Prov. 22:6). In it we are taught morality, or immorality. We are instructed in authority, for good or ill. It is the beginning of our religious training, whether reverence or blasphemy. We also learn a work ethic, or lack thereof.

History reveal the rise and fall of nations depends greatly on the family. The following is noted in Grant Caldwell’s The Home—God’s First Great Institution. In Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire, there was the problem of a rapid increase in divorce in ancient Rome. The “dignity and sanctity of the home” were being undermined. In the first five centuries of Rome there was no divorce, but at the end divorce took place for frivolous reasons. Seneca said there was no shame in divorce and you marry to be divorced.

Society breaks down when the home breaks down. Note these statistics.[1]

Out-of-Wedlock births.

• 1940: less than five percent.
• 1970: about 9 percent.
• 1999: more than 30 percent.

Children living with biological fathers & mothers.

• First marriage, intact two-parent family: 44.9 percent.
• Second marriage, two-parent stepfamily: 24.8 percent.
• Cohabiting couple: 6.7 percent.
• Single parent, divorced/separated: 16.3 percent.
• Single parent, widowed: 2.4 percent.
• Single parent, never married: 4.9 percent.

Criminality related to family background.

• Raised in intact married-parent family: 1.00 percent.
• Raised in a Mother-only home: 2.07 percent.
• Raised in a Mother & Stepfather home: 2.71 percent.
• Raised in a Father & Stepmother home: 3.70 percent.

School expulsions.

• Intact married: 1.0 percent.
• Divorced families: 1.9 percent.
• Never married: 4.3 percent.

Marijuana use.

• Intact: 19.9 percent.
• Single/never-married: 29.0 percent.
• Divorced: 35.3 percent.

Cocaine use.

• Intact: 2.8 percent.
• Divorced: 5.2 percent.
• Single/never-married: 7.5 percent.

Sexual Activity (ages 14-18).

• Intact: 32.3 percent.
• Stepparent: 51.1 percent.
• Cohabiting: 51.7 percent.
• Divorce, single parent: 52.0 percent.
• Single/never-married mother: 54.1 percent.

There Is Hope

There is hope for your family. The Word of God guides us in all aspects of life (2 Pet. 1:3). Husbands and wives need to love and respect one another, following God’s will and honoring their respective roles (Eph. 5:22-33; Titus 2:4, 5). Parents must be parents to their children, raising them to respect God and His will (Eph. 6:1-4).

The Bible gives us many examples of godly families living in an ungodly world. Noah raised his sons right, led his wife in righteousness, so they were spared from the flood when God destroyed the rest of the world for wickedness (Gen. 6:5-11; 7:1). Abraham was one who loved God and was chosen by God to be separated from all of humanity; through his Seed the world would be blessed (Gen. 12:1-3; Gal. 3:16). Samuel turned out good in spite of the unruliness of Israel at the time, including the priest’s sons, in large part because of his godly mother (1 Sam. 1:28; 3:19). Zacharias and Elizabeth lived righteously before God were able to raise John to be a God-fearing man like no other (Lk. 1:5, 6; Matt. 11:11). These families were not perfect, but they did humble themselves before God and diligently sought His ways.

If we stick to the truth of the Word, we can have a family that is pleasing to God. This is so even though we live in such a wicked world. Our sons and daughters can be models of virtue. It is not a foregone conclusion that they will get into drugs or have sex before marriage. They do not have to go off into a journey of self-discovery that includes tattoos and body piercings. Let us teach them to dress right, speak right, and act right…And a lot of prayer won’t hurt.