Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching. They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.
~Proverbs 1:8-9
If you are a parent reading this blog, I hear your resounding "Amen!" We wrap up the school year this week with our annual Messy Olympics event. We get messy, sometimes wet, and just have an all around good time. This year our leaders agreed to do a Great British Bake Off themed Messy Olympics. So, I was thinking about my wife's grandmother's pie crusts. She made the best pie crusts and she took with her to her grave her secret to success. Many women in the family have tried to duplicate her recipe. Some have come close, but none are identical. She didn't use a recipe and she didn't tell anyone her secret. The general consensus is that her secret was she touched the crust as little as possible.
In baking, following instructions is very important. Just a little too much or too little of any one ingredient can drastically change the outcome of the baked good. The same is true for our lives in Christ. When we follow our heavenly Father's instructions, found in His Word, we follow Him as He wants us to. It doesn't mean that life goes smoothly all the time, just that we can find solace knowing we are living our lives the way that He wants us to live. Just a little disobedience or turning to the right or left can land us on the wrong path. But I don't need to tell you parents this. How do we get our kids to follow our instruction?
I think the best thing we can do is follow our own instructions. What I mean by this is lead by example. "Do what I say not what I do" doesn't work for this generation. They want authenticity. As someone has correctly said, "faith is more caught than taught." The other thing we can do is say along with Paul, "follow me as I follow Christ." What he means by that is as he does his best to follow his Father's instructions, his followers should be able to see a pattern to follow. As parents, as we follow Christ, our kids should see what it looks like to follow Christ and have an example of what the Bible says to do. Life is messy, but it's way better following the way Jesus has carved out for us.
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