1. How to Raise Wise, Godly Children
Training Your Child to Obey
Dealing with Rebellion
Training in Righteousness
Aiming for the Heart

2. Love never exhausts hope (13:7c)
Hopes for the best with regard to all men. (Hodge p.271)
Hopes the best of all men… even of wicked men, that they may be better and brought to repentance, and of fallen professors, who declare their repentance… he hopes well of them, that they are sincere, and all is right… (John Gill)

3. Love never exhausts hope (13:7c)
How does this apply to our kids?
Teach your kids to pray for unbelieving or troubled friends and family members.
Especially if your child is gifted at engaging others, as they get older teach them how to engage troubled people in a way that is helpful.

4. Love never gives up (13:7d)
The word [hupomeno] is properly a military word that means to sustain the assault of an enemy. Hence it is used in the New Testament to express the idea of sustaining the assaults of suffering or persecution, in the sense of bearing up under them, and enduring them patiently. (Hodge p.271)
Refers to an endurance of setbacks and rebuffs which never gives up on people, whatever they do… Like Christ on the cross, love endures scorn, failure, ingratitude… For love never ends.’” (Thiselton, p. 1060)

5. Love never gives up (13:7d)
How does this apply to our kids?
Parents need to model this for their kids and especially towards their kids. Sometimes we encounter a problem in our kids that doesn’t ever seem to go away no matter what we try, but we need to continue to renew our efforts in helping them to change.
We need to be careful how we talk about our kids – even when we think they’re not listening.
We need to be careful how we talk to (or in front of) our kids about others.

6. How to Raise Wise, Godly Children
Training Your Child to Obey
Dealing with Rebellion
Training in Righteousness
Aiming for the Heart

7. Training in Righteousness - Review
Training in righteousness is aimed at imparting good character. Training in righteousness teaches our children to:
Discern and what is wise and right even in areas where we have not given them specific instructions.
Do what is wise and right even when we’re not there.
We instill good character in our children by encouraging them to develop good character traits and discouraging (and disciplining) them when they exhibit bad character traits.

8. Training in Righteousness - Review
We have spent the last 15 weeks looking at how the Word of God defines good character versus bad character:
Overview of the Book of Proverbs
A New Testament list of good, loving character traits as described in 1Cor 13:4-7
We are now going to spend time in class learning the various “tools” at our disposal for imparting good character to our children.

9. “Tools” for Training in Righteousness
Spanking/Consequences
Teaching/Instructing
Rebuking/Correcting
Activity/Drilling/Practicing
Modeling by Personal Example

10. Spanking/Consequences
We have already talked about the importance of spanking.
As Ginger Plowman observes, “the rod is somewhat of a mystery in how it works but we can be confident that while we are obeying God and working on the buttocks, God is honoring our obedience and working on the heart.”
Michael Pearl says “Don’t think of the rod as a weapon of defense or a show of force; think of it more as a ‘magic wand’. The first time parents see its restorative powers, they are amazed. I still marvel at the power of the little rod.”

11. Spanking/Consequences
Sometimes children cause problems for themselves and/or others by their carelessness, forgetfulness or foolishness. In such cases, parents may need to impose consequences on the child in order to make things right for the offended party and/or to teach the child that there is a cost for their misbehavior.
If there is rebellion involved in the problem caused, the child will need to be disciplined in addition to the consequence imposed.
If there is no rebellion or disobedience involved then discipline is probably not appropriate.
The parents will need to determine what consequences are appropriate for their child given their knowledge of the situation and the age and ability of the child to carry out the consequence.

12. Spanking/Consequences
Examples of possible consequences given to children for causing problems due to carelessness, forgetfulness, or foolishness:
A child who accidentally spills a glass of milk may have to help clean up the mess they caused.
A child who accidentally breaks a window (with a ball or a rock), may have to clean up the mess and/or pay for the repair of the window.
A child who forgets to bring home his coat from school may have to walk back to school and find a janitor to open the classroom where he left his coat.
A child who offends someone by saying something inappropriate should be made to apologize to the offended person.

13. Spanking/Consequences
More Examples Consequences:
A child who gives into peer pressure to do something his parents don’t approve of may have to give up spending time with those peers for a season.
A child who “forgets” to put his toys away after playing with them may have to loose the use of those toys for some period of time.
Can you think of other examples?