By GE Watkins

The first of God’s institutions, the home, is foundational for society and for the church. If there are healthy homes there is a healthy society. If there are healthy homes in the church it is more likely that there is a healthy church. The opposite can be said for broken homes; the society and the church both suffer if homes don’t function as God designed.

With so much on the line it is important that we identify things that will destroy homes if left unchecked. What leaves homes in a wreck? What makes it so that parents are ashamed to have guests in their home? What leaves wives weeping and husbands with shattered dreams? What leaves children abandoned and without direction?

By Mike Riley

The instruction in Proverbs 22:6 to “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it”, is a difficult saying for most parents, because we feel we have failed our children in so many ways. “Training” is more than teaching. The word may be defined, “to mold character, instruct by exercise, drill, to make obedient to orders, to put or point in an exact direction, to prepare for a contest.” All parents are training their children in one way or another. In this article, let us briefly look at some of God’s instructions in training up a child:

By G.E. Watkins

Fathers! With every step you take, and every word you say, with every book you read, and every conversation with your wife, with every responsibility you take, and everything you neglect, you are teaching your children. Fathers can’t get around it, fathers teach their children.

You teach your children the Golden Rule (Matt. 7:12), not so much by instructing them to memorize it, but when you practice it on them, when you decide that their happiness matters to you, and that you’ll listen to their likes and dislikes. They learn it when they know they’re not there just to wait on you, and that you like to tell them “yes” as much as you can and “no” only when you have to, and when they understand that they don’t live by your whim but by your wisdom.

By Mike Riley

You’ve heard the saying, “Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day; teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” Relative to God’s word, we might express this principle this way: “Teach a man what the Bible says, and he has knowledge for a day; teach a man to study the Bible, and he has knowledge for a lifetime.” Many people’s approach to Bible study is the “Let Reid Do It” method. They say to themselves, “I don’t have to study the Bible “” that’s what we have Reid Smith for.” Several problems arise from this method: