Fighting for Your Family, the sermon series by Dr. Erwin Lutzer, preached in 2013, is full of many good helps for marriages and raising children. Today the radio re-aired 'Children, God's Special Gift' and there were a few poignant reminders. One coincides well with last night's sermon at my church where he reminded us that where sin is, there is an opportunity for grace to abound. Never give up on a wayward child or person because like with all of us, at some point the gospel may get into their heart and a radical transformation will occur.
Another point that Dr. Lutzer made was that Proverbs is a book of.........proverbs. They are maxims that are often true but not ALWAYS true. If we train up a child in the way he should go, most of the time we will see the desired results, but not ALWAYS. He exhorted his listeners to remember not to over estimate the power they have by doing right in the life of their child. This reminds me greatly of the reason to choose the best and safest means to educate Christian children. It does not ensure they will walk in truth all of their life, but in general, the majority will. Likewise, children in a secular environment won't always hold to those secular views, but in general, they will.
Dr. Lutzer gave a great example of this reality that proverbs are merely proverbs (i.e. not promises that WILL definitely happen if we do the right thing in applying them). 'A soft answer turns away wrath.' Well, usually it will, but we all know of times where a person was bent on being angry and a soft answer did nothing to dispel their wrath. Most of the time it will, however, so we try to do just that and dispel wrath by not getting spun up into the mayhem.
Another point that Dr. Lutzer made was that Proverbs is a book of.........proverbs. They are maxims that are often true but not ALWAYS true. If we train up a child in the way he should go, most of the time we will see the desired results, but not ALWAYS. He exhorted his listeners to remember not to over estimate the power they have by doing right in the life of their child. This reminds me greatly of the reason to choose the best and safest means to educate Christian children. It does not ensure they will walk in truth all of their life, but in general, the majority will. Likewise, children in a secular environment won't always hold to those secular views, but in general, they will.
Dr. Lutzer gave a great example of this reality that proverbs are merely proverbs (i.e. not promises that WILL definitely happen if we do the right thing in applying them). 'A soft answer turns away wrath.' Well, usually it will, but we all know of times where a person was bent on being angry and a soft answer did nothing to dispel their wrath. Most of the time it will, however, so we try to do just that and dispel wrath by not getting spun up into the mayhem.
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