Grace for Your Day March 21

The story is told of the time a greeting card company decided to do something special for Mother’s Day. They set up a table in a federal prison and invited inmates to send free cards to their mothers. The lines were so long they had to get more. Due to the success of the event, they then decided to do the same thing on Father’s Day. However, this time, not one prisoner felt the need to send one. In fact, when asked about it, many had no idea who their fathers actually were.

The story highlights an important fact: children need both of their parents. They need a father and a mother if they are going to grow up the way that God intended. While the Lord can still bless a single-parent household, His original design for the family is for one man and one woman to raise children within the bonds of marriage so that they see what true manhood and womanhood is like. As he is writing the Book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul thought that this issue was important enough to address separately. He writes in Ephesians 6:4:
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

If you notice, this is a short passage but it contains some very helpful instruction. The term “fathers” can refer to both parents and Paul uses it here to give us the two-fold task of parenting. He gives us a positive and a negative command: do not provoke your children to anger but, instead, bring them up in the Lord.

Every parent will tell you that this is what parenthood is about. This summarizes the entire job. On the one hand, we want to build our children up. We want to encourage them and exhort them and give them all the tools that they need to live a God-honoring life. On the other hand, we do not want to tear them down. We do not want to discourage them and frustrate them and hinder their growth as a person. We do not want to be a constant irritation towards them in the home but, instead, be their greatest support.

So how do you do this? How do you parent in a way that shows your children that you support them? How do you build them up in the Lord? That is what we are going to talk about this week at Grace Fellowship Church.

This Sunday, we are going to talk about some Principles of Godly Parenting. We are going to look at what the Bible says about the important role of a parent. So far in the Book of Ephesians, we have looked at what the Bible says about husbands and wives. We have also examined what is tells us about children and learned a lot in doing so. However, our study would not be a complete without a discussion of this subject. We need to look at the responsibilities of a father and a mother in the home.

So please join us for that. The sermon will be recorded on Saturday night and posted on our You Tube Channel by Sunday morning. We have been blessed with several young families here at GFC so let this sermon be a reminder to pray for them and encourage them any way you can in the great work that they are doing. – Jeremy Cagle