Parents are the primary influence in a child's life.
Regardless of how much time spent with the child,
by the mother or the father,
they hold incredible influence over the life of the child.
In our last episode, we surveyed the potential
of the individual elements of our being.
Our heart, soul, mind, and strength
possess incredible power individually,
but also collectively, if aligned to the purpose of God,
the potential is unlimited.
But we also talked about the problem,
how sin has come into our soul and stolen our potential.
In the episode today, we are talking about a strategy
to approach discipleship in a way
that sets up this generation to live an elite lifestyle.
In approaching a strategy, it's important to understand
the different influences within a child's life.
You have parents, you have education,
you have entertainment, and you have the church.
These things determine so much of what a child believes
and focuses on in terms of what they are
desiring to accomplish.
In this episode, we will be focusing on parents.
Parents are the primary influence in a child's life,
regardless of how much time spent with the child,
by the mother or the father,
they hold incredible influence over the life of the child.
We see that even from abusive households and absent parents,
that it's uncanny how generations will continue
to repeat the different beliefs, values,
and behaviors of their parents.
So it cannot be underestimated.
In my personal research when I was completing my degree,
I was consistently surprised
that parents are the number one component
in affecting success in education, socially,
and even career after the children
have moved out of the household.
So speaking to parents, your job is incredibly important.
If you want to see your children become elite,
then it is time for you to become proactive
in all of these elements of your child,
in their soul, in their body, in their heart,
and in the discipleship of their mind.
And what I'm going to pose to you
is a strategy for you parents to easily approach
each individual element of your child's discipleship.
The model that I have created has four components.
The first being model.
Display what you want to your children.
Next is teach.
Teach your children.
Engage.
Be interactive with your children
as they are growing and learning,
and then encourage.
Encourage the behavior that you are wanting to see.
Let's break this down into some simple examples.
If you want to see your child
have a dynamic relationship with God,
the first thing that you as the parent have to do
is you have to model that.
You have to allow your children to see
you spending time with the Lord
and reading your Bible in prayer time.
Let them hear the sincerity behind your prayer,
even if it's just at the dinner table,
you know, saying the blessing before you eat.
Let them see your heart for other people,
seeing how God is motivating you to love other people
in visible actions.
Don't be the preacher who does not carry out
what they are encouraging other people to do.
Make sure you are walking the talk.
The next is teach.
Make sure you are prioritizing time in your day,
or even if it's just two times a week,
to have intentional devotion time with your children.
This is an incredible time to teach them
about spiritual things,
but so many times it can be led by their questions.
I know for myself and my family,
we would ask so many questions
about the different passages being read to us,
and it was a great time for my parents
to just teach and disciple us on those different things.
The next one is engage.
Find a fun, interactive way to engage your children
in this concept of discipling their soul.
Maybe it's watching a cheesy Christian movie
with the intent of actually analyzing the message
and having that discussion afterwards with your child
of what was trying to be communicated through that movie.
Lastly, we have encourage.
Look for the times when your children
are having their personal time with the Lord.
Look for the prayers that they are praying,
and encourage them.
Now, this is one of the ones that's a little more tricky
because you don't want to show favoritism to your children.
So sometimes...
the individual compliments that you pay them just one-on-one can be so incredibly important.
I remember a time when my father called me into his office and he read a scripture to me,
and he said that he believed that this was me in my development as a young person.
And the verse was talking about how when we were a child, we thought as a child,
we reasoned as a child, but when we became a man, we put away childish things.
Now, I was a young person, I think 13 or 14 at the time, but it was incredibly encouraging to
me that my father saw my intentionality. He saw my progress as a young man of God,
and he called that out and he encouraged that in me.
Another example we could use is physical fitness. Maybe you want your children to
have a really good understanding of how to have a healthy lifestyle. Well, let's use the model
model. So how are they seeing you exercise on a consistent basis? Make sure that that's visible
to them. Let them see you rejecting or having healthy restraint when it comes to unhealthy food.
Then teach, prepare a healthy meal for dinner. And this is important to also make it delicious.
If it's healthy and disgusting, you're kind of defeating the purpose there,
but make a delicious meal that is also healthy and dialogue with your children about what was
chosen, why you were eating these different foods and how they are actually healthy and
beneficial for the body. Next we have engage, go on a family bike ride together, or go on YouTube
and pull up a family workout and do that together as a family. Make it fun, make it a competition,
make it a challenge, but make it family time to where you are actually engaging with your
children with this. Once again, you're not having expectations on them, but you are willing to get
down and dirty with them and do the things, do the work together. Lastly, encourage,
encourage those healthy decisions that you see your children make and compliment that.
Make sure that they are aware that you are observing and that you are seeing the progress
that they are making. You are seeing the benefits that they are receiving from healthy choices.
We could use this model to go through every category of our children's being, and I hope that
it's a helpful tool to you to think about how you're modeling, how you're teaching, how you're
engaging, and how you are encouraging your children. But more importantly than anything else is be a
present parent. If a child feels like they can come to you with their hurt, with their pain, with
their confusion, and you will be accepting, you will listen without being judgmental or critical,
then you are building a bond with your child that will last a lifetime. I speak once again from
experience with my parents, how they opened the door for conversations that were hard or
uncomfortable or awkward, and they kept that open communication in a way that allowed me to
approach them with my mess, with my hurt, with my confusion on different topics. When you are doing
that, you are opening a door to actually disciple their soul. They are willing to share the deep
things with you. You're able to address the faulty beliefs or the faulty ideologies that they have
about themselves. You're able to encourage the beauty that you see in their soul, in their person,
and you're able to partner with them in a discipleship that is both relational and unique.
So to recap, the way that we effectively reach and disciple an elite generation is by primarily
through parents, parents being intentional and available to disciple every aspect of their child,
heart, soul, mind, and body. Discipling them through the strategy of modeling, teaching, engaging, and encouraging.