Mission: Training Up a Child

Start Up

Parents are, by definition, wayfinders—they help train, guide, discipline, and prepare their children to go out and make something of themselves. But raising children can be really, really hard! All of us, whether we are parents, planning to be parents, or don’t plan to have children of our own, are called to impact the next generation. We are to love God and make Him known as we pass that faith along.

• Share with the group if any of these “typical parent experiences” applied to your week:
  • You hide on the toilet to be left alone.
  • It takes longer to get in the car than it does to run the errand.
  • Your date night is used to go to the grocery store.
  • You feel like you are cleaning up a party you didn’t attend.
  • You make coffee, and then, it takes four hours to drink it.
  • You wake up to little voices and immediately start daydreaming of sleep.
  • You understand why some animals eat their young.
• What two or three words would you use to describe your home environment growing up?

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Discuss Together

Read Proverbs 22:6 and Deuteronomy 6:5-8 together.

• What parenting principles do you see in the passages we just read?
• Do you see investing in the next generation, whether as a parent, mentor, or teacher, as a calling? In what ways does “training up a child” require sacrifice?
• Blake said faith is more caught than taught. Based on what you do and what is important to you in your everyday life, what do you think the children in your life are “catching” from you right now? How passionate are you about knowing God and making Him known?
• The Bible places a high priority on the frequency of talking to our children about God. What are some specific locations or times that might be conducive for faith conversations (e.g., a car ride and at a sporting event)?
• What challenges are you facing as you seek to “train up” your children or the children in your life to want to know God and make Him known?
• Blake talked about the power of telling our children what we see in them. Do you find yourself focusing more on what your children do and who they shouldn’t be rather than who they are? What is one way this week you can tell them who they are?