One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts - Psalms 145:4

This scripture is talking about one generation passing on something to the next, in this context it’s talking about praise. When I look around at today’s parents I have to ask myself “what are you actually passing on to the next generation?” There were things that were passed on to me from my mother; as how I was to raise my children. When I eventually got married and started a family of my own, my mother was there to teach me and guide me in my new role as a mother. The generation of today don’t ask for or want advice but act as though they know it all. I had the common sense to know that I had never done this before and even though I had younger siblings, I couldn’t qualify myself as a mother based on watching or helping to look after them. I have been fortunate to have spent some time with some new mums and found that there is so much they don’t know about the basics of raising children. I assumed that most women had mothers or older women that would impart to them their wisdom and experience about raising their children, my assumption was wrong. Over the next several months I will be sharing some of my personal experiences on how I raised my children as well as what the Bible tells us about raising our children.

The first thing that we need to understand is that we have a tremendous responsibility and privilege in raising the next generation. Through nurturing our children are taught how to talk, walk, act etc. Many parents of our generation are lazy or inexperienced and some are even children themselves who don’t understand what it is they are supposed to do.

LESSON 1

We have a responsibility to train the next generation Proverbs 22:6 (NIV) says “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”

It is the biblical duty of every generation of Christians to ensure that the next generation hears and knows about God and His mighty acts. God does not send an angel with a Bible from heaven to teach the next generation. It is God’s intention that the older generation teach the newer generation to read and think and trust and obey God. Romans 10:14 says “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” God draws near to every new generation of believers, which He does through the Biblical truth that they learn from the preceding generations. If our generation does not grasp or understand biblical truth then we will drop the baton that we are supposed to pass to the preceding generations.

This generation has a biblical and relational responsibility to educate the next generation by modelling a lifestyle that is passionate and zealous for the things of God. There is nothing worse than dry, unemotional, indifferent teaching about God - whether at home or at church. It says one thing about God and portrays another, it is inconsistent because if our teaching or training is dry, indifferent and boring then the next generation are not going to be interested in what we have to say about God. So one of the ways that we can effectively train the next generation is to be passionate and zealous about God; model Him in a way that others would want to know Him because of the way you portrayed Him.

The responsibility to train the next generation begins in our homes in front of our families and then moves to our friends and associates. We train the next generation in our churches by modelling biblical truth with zeal and passion. As a Pastor I sometimes find it difficult to refer a younger person to an older person because I don’t see certain things that I am looking for being modelled. Some of the older generation have adapted some strange and unbiblical behaviour that has deeply affected the younger generation. I think one of the reasons for this is because the older generation were not generationally minded and lived very much for the moment. If they had thought generationally I strongly believe the church worldwide would be much stronger and grounded than it is today. Our mindset has got to change to begin to think generationally so we can prepare a legacy to pass on to the next generation. You don’t have to have children to train the next generation the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 3:2 that we are epistles(letters) known and read by all men. The next generation is watching us to see if we are living by the biblical truths of God’s Word with zeal and passion. The first thing we can do is to get rid of all flakiness, strange doctrines and behaviour that are not in line with God’s Word and begin to live in agreement with the Word of God. Cultivate a passion and zeal for the things of God so that when you talk about Him, you talk with passion and zeal, as I said before there is nothing worse than a boring, indifferent and unemotional teacher.

The first lesson then is to think and act generationally. Remember that you are representing Christ to the next generation and He is not indifferent or boring so represent Him as He is diverse, exciting, dynamic, incredible, amazing and passionate to name just a few. Model him in this way to your children, your friends and family and in your churches and community.

Parenting Tip:
Model Him to your children in church and at home by teaching them to put their hands together and close their eyes when a prayer is being said.

Pastor Erica Goodman