Communication: Parents and Children

    "There is a simple way to look at the cost of deep, full-orbed communication.  You must regard parenting as one of your most important tasks while you have your children at home.  This is your calling.  You must raise you children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.  You cannot do so without investing yourself in a life of sensitive communication in which you help them understand life and God's world.  There is nothing more important.  You have only a brief season of life to invest yourself in this task.  You have only one opportunity to do it, you cannot go back and do it over."

Citation: Tedd Tripp, "Shepherding a Child's Heart

Who will we teach our children to worship?

    "It is imperative to be clear on this issue.  Parenting is not just providing good input.  It is not just creating a constructive home atmosphere and positive interaction between a child and his parent.  There is a another dimension.  The child is interacting with the living God.  He is either worshipping and serving and growing in understanding of the implication of who God is or he is seeking to make sense of life without a relationship with God.
    If he is living as a fool who says in his heart there is not God, he doesn't cease to be a worshipper - he simply worships what is not God.  Part of the parent's task is to shepherd him as a creature who worships, pointing him to the One who alone is worthy of his worship.  The questions is not 'will he worship?'  It is always 'whom will he worship?'"

Citation: Tedd Tripp, "Shepherding a Child's Heart