parents

Pint-Sized Saints

by Ben Zornes · Oct 17, 2022

If you haven’t noticed, our congregation is populated by a goodly number of pint-sized saints. This is a visible evidence of God’s goodness and blessing. Children are indeed a blessing, but a foolish son is like bone cancer. Parents who treat these blessings like burdens, or who crush these blessings with burdens will find they’ve raised fools for children. Parents who receive their children from God & offer them up to God will enjoy the blessing that accompanies such faith-filled parenting.

Part of offering them up to God, is by bringing them with you into the company of saints as we worship God together. Fathers, the task of shepherding your children to participate in worship falls primarily to you. To that end, here are a few reminders for raising your children not only to be present with us here in the worship service, but for them to be a blessed contribution.

Crying children are not unwelcome, but oblivious parents of crying children are like the neighbor in the book of Proverbs who shouts a blessing to his neighbor at 3am. Fathers, take initiative in whisking the pip-squeak out, disciplining them as appropriate for any unruliness.

Don’t think that it’s less spiritual to have missed half the sermon or losing your spot in a song because you were correcting your child. You are coaching them, leading them, training them. Very soon they’ll get the hang of it, and you’ll once again be able to hear the pastor’s very funny joke after his third point.

Talk about church during the week. Ask your children what they learned. Sing together. Practice sitting still & silent, and reward them with jelly-beans. In short, actively parent your kids both here & at home. Don’t grow flustered, but faithfully train your sons & daughters to delight in the worship of the Triune God.

Our culture abhors children. It glares at them on airplanes, calls the murder of the unborn a right, and lets the television raise their offspring. But God’s Word tells us that the Lord has ordained praise from these tiny lips, and from these cries of infants. Many parents grow weary or frustrated with the, at times, slow progress of rearing little children. Parents must go to God for grace to diligently train their children to walk in all His ways, and this congregation must exercise joyful patience in assisting each other in nurturing up these children to love & fear God. May God forgive us as a nation for despising our offspring, and let the people of God demonstrate the great joy and calling that it is to raise up sons & daughters in the grace of our Lord Jesus.

The Treasure of a Christian Education

by Ben Zornes · Aug 29, 2022

As the school-year begins, it’s important to be reminded what we’re doing in the education of our children. Children, your education isn’t just something to keep you busy during the day. According to Scripture, the instruction of wise parents & teachers is better than silver & gold (Pro. 8:10). Thus, education is receiving the wealth of wisdom which your ancestors have accumulated. But not all forms of education are equal.

Some advocate for a child-directed form of education. This assumes a view of children that’s unbiblical. Children aren’t founts of wisdom & discerning innocence. There’s folly in children’s hearts which must be driven out through discipline & training.

Others think to treat children as widgets on an assembly line. Get them to pass enough multiple choice questions, and, tada, more federal grants. This dehumanizes children, treating them like consumable products instead of a blessed legacy.

Education, in biblical terms, is receiving wisdom from above. The key which unlocks this treasure chamber is the Wisdom of the Gospel: our redemption through Christ’s blood. The Gospel is the first treasure which unlocks all others, and wise instructors ensure their pupils have this key.

So children, diligently apply yourself to this work of sorting the treasures in this storehouse. Your schoolwork is the labor which God sets before you to do. So you’re commanded to work at it heartily & joyfully, as an offering to the Lord.

Parents, this task is yours to superintend. You must be diligent to ensure that your children are indeed receiving all the riches of all the wisdom & knowledge of God. You’re training them to spot the difference between gold & fools gold.

In short, an education is worthwhile only insofar as Christ is central to it. To repurpose a proverb of Solomon, a Christ-less education is like a golden jewel in the snout of a swine.

Sheep Bleating At the Shepherds

by Ben Zornes · May 17, 2022

One of the doctrinal conclusions which comes from a covenant theology, is that all who’ve been united with Christ in baptism should partake of Christ here in His Supper. All in Christ, should eat of Christ. Which explains why baptized children aren’t kept from the Lord’s table. But affirming a doctrine isn’t enough. We must put it into practice circumspectly.

This is why we’ve sought to cultivate a culture within our congregation where baptized children are welcome to begin partaking of the Supper as soon as they are able. When a baptized infant starts giving mom & dad a quizzical look which says, “What gives?” as the basket of bread goes past them each week, what we call “a teachable moment” has arrived. By welcoming or withholding, the child is being taught. They’re either being taught that they’re “in” or “out.”

Which is why parents should, as soon as their infant is no longer sleeping through the sermon, alert the elders that the child is capable of partaking along with all the other saints. Let me quickly add an important point of doctrine which parents should keep in mind when this juncture comes. Parents shouldn’t think of themselves as the arbiters of when a child is “ready.” Fathers & mothers aren’t notifying the elders of a decision which the parents made. Rather, they’re ensuring the elders’ don’t overlook a covenant member.

The Word lays out the duties assigned to specific governments. The elders are the “stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Cor. 4:11).” It isn’t the father’s duty to fence the table. That’s the duty of the elders. So parents, when you draw the attention of the elders to the fact that your baptized child is now capable of partaking, think of yourself as fellow sheep, bleating at the shepherds, to not neglect feeding the littlest lambs.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…