PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

Responsibilities of a Parent (1)

With this issue of Parenthood we begin a series of articles concerning the responsibilities of a parent. These messages are excerpted from one of the chapters in Watchman Nee's Messages for Building Up New Believers. Brother Nee was very burdened that parents would realize the seriousness of the responsibility that God has given to them-to be a parent is to be given a divine stewardship! The Lord has entrusted our children to us. We represent God to our children. Properly speaking, we should love with His love, discipline with His discipline, instruct with His instructions, and set up a pattern of living that brings our children to God through His living in us. The Bible is very economical in its instructions to parents, simply telling us that our primary responsibility as parents is to nurture our children in the discipline and admonition of the Lord and to not provoke them to anger or discourage them (Ephesians 6:4).

Sanctifying oneself in this way compels us that we not only speak to our children about living a proper life of following the Lord, but that we present to them the pattern of one who walks with God. Our standard for our children must be our own personal standard. Only then will they have the way to grow and become proper members of the Body of Christ.

A particularly arresting point of the author is that "the church cannot go on if parents do not have a sense of being entrusted. We do not want to see our children being rescued back from the world. Suppose we beget children, lose them to the world, and then try to rescue them back. If we allow this to happen, the gospel will never be preached to the uttermost part of the earth." May we all acquire a fresh burden to wholly sanctify ourselves to the Lord for the diligent care of our children on His behalf.

Apart from the book of Proverbs, the Old Testament does not seem to give us much teaching concerning parenting. In the New Testament, however, Paul wrote something about being parents. Most books in the world teach children how to be children; not many books teach parents how to be parents. Most people pay attention to teachings for children. But the New Testament pays much attention to teachings for parents. It does not pay much attention to teachings about being children. Although it does teach us something about children, the emphasis is not on children. Both Ephesians 6 and Colossians 3 put more emphasis on parents than on children. We should learn to be proper parents because God pays more attention to parents than to children.

If we try to summarize the words in the Bible concerning parenting, the main thing parents should do is nurture their children in the teaching and admonition of the Lord and not provoke them to anger or discourage them. This means that parents must exercise self-control and must not be loose in any way. This is Paul's teaching concerning the subject.

As difficult as it is to be a husband or a wife, I hope you will realize that there is something more difficult-being a parent. Being a husband or a wife involves only two people; being a parent involves more. Being a husband or a wife is a matter of personal happiness; being a parent is something that affects the well-being of the children of the next generation The responsibility over the future of the children of the next generation is on the shoulders of the parents. We have to realize how serious this responsibility is. God has placed a person's body, soul, and spirit, even his whole life and future, into our hands. No individual influences another individual's future as much as parents. No one controls a person's future as much as parents. ... Here we will consider the Christian way of parenting. The knowledge of this will save us from many headaches.

A. Sanctifying Oneself for the Sake of the Children

First, all parents must sanctify themselves before God for the sake of their children.

1. The Lord Sanctifying Himself for the Sake of the Disciples

What does it mean to be sanctified before God? The Lord Jesus said, "For their sake I sanctify Myself" (John 17:19). This does not refer to being holy, but to whether or not one is sanctified. The Lord Jesus is holy and His nature is holy. But for the sake of the disciples, He sanctified Himself. There were many things that He could have done which were not contrary to His own holiness; nevertheless, He refrained from doing them because of weakness in the disciples. In many matters the disciples' weakness directed the Lord and restricted His freedom.

2. Not Walking in a Loose Way

Similarly, those who have children should sanctify themselves for the sake of their children. This means that we should refrain from doing many things that we could do for the sake of our children. There are many things that we could say, but for the sake of the children we do not say them. From the day we bring our children into our family, we should sanctify ourselves.

If you do not restrict yourself, you will not be able to restrict your children. The looseness of those who do not have children, at the most, results in trouble for themselves. But for those who have children, looseness results in damage to their children as well as to themselves. Once a Christian brings a child into the world, he must sanctify himself. Two eyes, sometimes four, are watching you all the time. They will follow you all your life. Even after you have left this world, they will not forget what they have seen in you; the things you do will remain inside of them.

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