We don’t need to be experienced parents to access the Biblical truths guiding what our children need to thrive. This week, we’re focusing on the common roots every parent and child can benefit from living in.
QUESTIONS WE TOUCH ON IN THIS EPISODE:
- How to raise up your children?
- What to teach your children?
- Is it too late to teach your children?
VERSES FROM IN THE WAY THEY SHOULD GO:
Proverbs 22:6, Joshua 24:15, 1 Peter 5, Matthew 19, 2 Corinthians 12:14, John 16:13.
QUOTES FROM IN THE WAY THEY SHOULD GO:
“God had to be the foundation, the roots, the center. However you want to phrase it. The idea that comes out of Proverbs 22:6 says, train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he is old, he will not depart from it. Even though we don’t know from personal experience, we still have the truth at our disposal.”
Michelle Watson, The Pantry Podcast, S02E11, In the Way They Should Go.
“This house belongs to God. My child belongs to God. My marriage belongs to God. That tree belonged to God. I was stressed over that tree. Cause you know, you as a husband, you, you, you want to protect your house, but you know what? I gave it to God and I haven’t thought about it since.”
Shea Watson, The Pantry Podcast, S02E11, In the Way They Should Go.
Annotation
Shea: What are we going to be talking about today?
Michelle: Raising children in the way they should.
Shea: Yeah. I know. Look, our child is what, 15 months. So coming at you with 20 years of knowledge of having a child, that’s, that’s not where we’re coming from, but one thing that we can do, and one thing that we can be super confident in is how, and I think we dialed in on that pretty early, we knew that God had to be the biggest role in raising her.
Michelle: God had to be the foundation, the roots, the center. However you want to phrase it. The idea that comes out of Proverbs 22:6 says, train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he is old, he will not depart from it. Even though we don’t know from personal experience, we still have the truth at our disposal.
Shea I think it’s good sometimes just to reach out, let people know that, you know, don’t wait, start from the beginning in his word. And I really love Joshua 24:15. It’s something I kind of live by. And, you know, I always throw it out, like at the end of the inverse, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, but I really liked the beginning of it. So I would just want to read the whole thing it’s says. And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day, who you, whom you shall serve, whether the gods, which your fathers served that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. What’s really cool about that.
Shea: That was, you know, a thought from Abraham, when you think of the gods from the other side of the river. So basically Abraham was from the other side of the river and they did worship other gods. So when God came to Abraham, that was the connection. And he was like, yeah. Okay. And he followed. And I think that that’s an important idea to come to. Who are you going to follow? Are you going to base it off of these worldly books? Not saying that we shouldn’t use them for guidance. You know, I heard, I heard one pastor say one time that it’s not wrong to listen to things or read things or see things or watch things, but you should always have the Bible as a comparative and say, does it match up? Right? Does it align with the Bible? We, we said, you know what? We will serve the Lord and see. So actually, where did this all start with raising our child? It started with our own commitment to God.
Michelle: Yeah. This whole season is about, we are second in the world. I think one of the things you hear the most about when you become a parent is, you know, you’re no longer first, but the cool thing about being a Christian is you’re already not first. So when you have a kid, nothing changes in that regard, right? You’re still not first, right? There’s just one more person in front of you on earth, but you’re still not first knowing that you’re not first and telling God to come in and dictate what needs to happen and set the tone is we also hear this thing, you know, you’re now entering your mission field when you leave your home. But I think the cool thing about the home is your mission field might be outside your room. It might be outside your bed. It might be right beside you in the co-sleeper beside your bed where there’s a little infant who doesn’t know the Lord for themselves. Right? And so your whole goal is to be an example, like it says in 1 Peter 5, it says being examples to the flock, not domineering over those that you’re in charge of. That’s what this is about is being that example. And so it’s great to start out knowing God is first. I am second. My child is second to God. My spouse is second to God. Everything is second to God, because then everything actually funny enough will feel like it’s being treated a lot better than they would expect. Second place to feel.
Shea: Would never disagree with what you do. I am definitely a force when it comes to staying aligned to God. And I love that. I take it for granted sometimes background, you know, and I think I’ve mentioned it before that in previous relations, I had nine children that never came. So when Michelle got pregnant, the only place that I could find rest was in God’s arms and saying, Lord, this is your child. And I think we claim that and I have pretty much lived by that minus the one day when she fell over, put her tooth halfway up into her head. That one got me a little bit. I was like, call the doctor, Michelle, get the doctor on the line. But other than that, I have pretty much left her in God’s hands. And I want to raise her that way, not just so that she feels a religion in this house, but a relationship so that when she praises the Lord, I would love for that to be hers.
Shea: And you know, what’s funny is we’re starting to see that she’ll hear one of the songs that she’s heard a few times and she actually digs music. So she’s all of a sudden, she’ll just start, start swaying. And then you see this little hand raise up in the backseat and you know, she doesn’t know really who yet, but she’s getting an idea through our guiding and our teachings and the way we’re raising her in Christ that I think that that is the best way to give her the best opportunity to move forward. Cause she needs Christ in this, in the world we live in, she needs Christ.
Michelle: Yeah. We’re not here to give, you know, these seven or eight bullet points of like, if the bedtime is this, if the nutrition is this, if you bottle feed over breastfeed, it’s going to be great. You know, none of that, right? This is all, what are the roots? How do you have these roots that they might look and manifest different in every home, but it straight out of God’s war. This is an encouragement episode to build you up and challenge you to put God first, like you said, make it about a relationship, not this religious practice, not check boxes, not a schedule where God’s fit in certain places to guarantee there’s exposure. But is he the reason for things is he being praised as much as he’s being petitioned is God’s word being consulted for decisions? Like what, what are we going to let our children see?
Speaker 1 00:06:45 Right? We can’t say put God first. But then we come up with our own decisions that contradict his word, making sure we don’t to the best of our ability hinder their pursuit of Jesus in Matthew 19, that’s where the little children were coming to Jesus so that he could lay his hands on them and pray for them. And the disciples rebuked people because you know that probably there were too many children, it was seen as like a hindrance, like, no, no, no. You know, he’s got, he’s got bigger things to do. But Jesus said, let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for, to such belongs the kingdom of heaven. He loves children from childhood. There is an experience they can have with Christ from childhood. It’s never too early and it says, do not hinder them. So this isn’t about, Oh, we’ll let them decide about going to church. Oh no. Like where’s the joy in your life? What joy, what excitement, what strength does God fortify your life with your child needs to be engaged in that you can be real with them about, you know, when you’re struggling show that you’re clinging to Christ through that struggle when you’re celebrating show that you’re giving thanks to the Lord for that celebration.
Shea: As you read that verse and same thing, you were looking as the do not hinder, right? Yeah. And since this is a live episode and we have time, I’m actually going to look it up in the, in the blue letter Bible. Cause I really want to see what hinder is in, in Greek. So just bear with me one second. It’s going to be awesome.
Michelle: Yeah. For the people listening, the blue letter Bible is if you haven’t heard of it before, it is a super useful tool to dig deeper into the texts because you know, a lot of people have heard that the, that the Intuit people have like all these different words for snow, because snow is such a integral part of their life. Whereas we have snow and sometimes we say slushy or sticky or, you know, but snow what’s cool is when you look at the blue letter, you can see the different, we say pride for about 27 different words. Right. But then like you can see like, okay, what type of pride are they talking about? And so if you’re ever this and this seemed to contradict, you can go back to the Hebrew and the Greek to see what they originally meant and how it was translated and see if it actually see how it actually looks.
Shea: In this case, it’s actually to hinder, prevent forbid, withhold a thing from anyone, deny or refuse one thing. So when you were talking about hinder, I had this, this thought in my head that came, deny them the opportunity to be near Christ. I am to be an imitator of Christ. The decisions that I make, I am supposed to be making decisions that are kingdom driven decisions, biblical decisions, God and Christ centric decisions. So when I walk outside of that position and I’m not in that position, I am hindering my child from seeing Christ. We need to raise them in a home where we’re imitators of Christ, where every day we’re denying ourselves, carrying our cross and following Jesus that hindering. So those people in that story, they were preventing, they were standing between the children and Jesus and rain. Never, never want to be that wall. I know from my own past experience and walls, how long it took me to come around to the realization that it’s important to be in God and be in Christ. All of my decisions have to be weighed against that because I don’t want that same upbringing from my daughter.
Michelle: This idea of the eternal everlasting wealth that we’re passing on. As it says in 2 Corinthians, it says for children are not obligated to save up for their parents, parents for their children. That’s in 2 Corinthians 12:14, a lot of times that there’s currency or money brought up in the Bible. We think of the physical, the cheddar, right? What’s cool that we live in the Holy spirit season of this world is that we’re kingdom, citizens, eternal mindset outweighs the worldly, anything. So we save up to the best of our ability, what physical wealth, what is the eternal wealth that we are storing up and then using for our children. If you go back to Deuteronomy four, that’s where it says, make them known to your children and your children’s children. The things that you must take care to keeping your soul diligently, unless you’re going to forget them, because these are the miracles that your eyes have seen, that they’re talking about, the things they heard and saw in Exodus, pillars of fire waters, parting water coming out of a rock.
Michelle: They experienced God in so many ways. It’s possible that you can forget to share what you’ve learned. You can forget to pass that on to your children. And instead go into a default mode, our experiences, the miracles, and answered prayers and storms. God’s carried us through. Those are the things we need to be passing on to them so that they understand the wisdom that we’ve gained is what we need to walk in. If we’re not walking in it, do you really trust it as wisdom, challenge yourself to do these things for your children, as well as for everybody around you?
Shea: I think family secrets can be dangerous. We’ve been given testimonies, you know, in our own lives. And though sometimes honestly I can honestly say sometimes I fall out of the new man and I find myself like shame sometimes. I never want to hide things that I experienced. I want her to understand that, you know, there is a rougher road and life choices and you know what, at the end of the day, she’s going to have to make the choice. She’s going to have to make the choice to serve Christ. And I’m telling you the upbringing, the start, the beginning where we are now, that is where we have an opportunity to really dial in this beautiful relationship back to that, this beautiful relationship. I don’t ground you because the Bible tells me to ground, you know, it’s like the Bible and you slap the Bible on where you are.
Shea: Or I think some people in the Catholic church would be like, yeah, them nuns was smackers with a ruler and you know, it really transforms itself in the relationship that you have, especially if you’re in Christ, with your child, because you know, it’s kind of a reflection. God is our father, right? It’s, it’s really cool. God is our father. And then that fatherly relationship transfers over to Calia there’s things. She does things that irritate me and she gets in trouble. You know, what I found is beautiful so far and yes, it’s only 15 months. She isn’t back talking to me yet. Y’all I get, I get it I’m way 15 months. Cause I even challenged by someone like when she starts talking, but you know what? She has personality already and she already defined it. She’s got her daddy’s heart.
Shea: When the discipline comes though, I can genuinely feel it’s coming from love and not from annoyance or, or some other position. And that’s because I want Christ to guide those decisions. And so I’m always like, okay, what do I do? And I am thinking in my head is, cause sometimes you have to y’all come on. Some of you, people have been parents for a long time. I’m pretty sure that you’ve been pushed because I know I’ve pushed my mom and my daddy and a lot of people around me anyways. And so, yeah. Am I a professional at this? No, but do I know how beneficial God is? Absolutely. When I discipline my child, I’m not going to do it from a point of anger. I don’t want to, I mean, let me rephrase that. I don’t want to do it from a point of anger.
Shea: She’s supposed to be obedient. Just like we’re supposed to be obedient, right? Yeah. She’s supposed to show love to others. Just like worship, supposed to show love. She’s supposed to forgive people, just like we’re supposed to forgive people. So he’s kinda like until they make that choice to be with Jesus Christ. And even after that, if they’re young, we are that representation. What makes Christ more attractive and seeing Christ being unfolded in front of you? The love, the grace, the mercy, the forgiveness. I mean, it’s just like to be a witness to that. Yeah. She runs from, you know, our 15 month old is kind of up to, I’m not saying, but again, she runs away and I was just like, I want the position to always be firm, in love because I never want to shut her down. In that sense,
Michelle: If you’re listening and you came to Christ after having children, or you’re still grappling with submitting and certain vital areas and you’re like, what am I going to do? My kid’s already here. My kid’s already five. My kid’s already 12. My kid’s already 17 years old. My kids already 30. And I came to Christ last year. What do I do? What do I do with that? When we’re, when we’re looking at that, we have to cling to the grace that God has for us know that when we’re working with God, he can always redeem a situation. So there’s a tree in our driveway that the city won’t let us cut. Although it was leaning. Notice I said was, it was leaning at like a 40 degree angle towards the house, big towering. This tree is 40, 50 years old for like, if it falls, this is going to do some stuff.
Michelle: And then because they said, no, Shay went out there and he laid it. He literally laid hands on the tree and he prayed and he said, God, this is your tree. Do something, whatever your will is, do it. Cause obviously I’ve done what I can do in my own power. And then he went on a month, long trip for work and he comes back and he looks at the tree. And because I had been going back and forth every day, I didn’t notice anything. He looks up that tree. He calls me outside. He says, come look at this tree. And I look up at it and maybe the first, third of it is still at that angle. And then it just starts shooting straight up. It’s the weirdest thing.
Shea: It’s a miracle.
Michelle: Our daughter will hear about it. But not only is that a testimony she’ll hear about, about the value of submitting all things back to their true owner. But it’s also proof that something that old and that’s set in its ways because through the Lord and only the Lord can be fixed rather than cut down
Shea: I’m just thinking of my own, my own existence, my own battle and how Satan has come after me since I was little, because he doesn’t want us to do what we’re doing. He doesn’t want us to be glorifying God in everything, in all situations and all things. And I’m kind of sidetracked from what, what I was gonna say. Cause I actually looked up at first, and I really believe in, and I think a lot of parents, your children can be powerhouses for the kingdom of God. Yeah. God knows everything. Satan only knows what he sees. So when you think about that, he’s attacking without knowledge of future. And God can sit there and say, okay, no, that’s fine. He’d go attack Leah joke. Right? Okay. Well go ahead and go attack. My brother, God knew from the day one that Joe would end up would be right there with him in righteousness at the end and say, God, my God is righteous, but that Satan doesn’t know that.
Shea: So again, this podcast is about kids. It’s about their uniqueness. I’m not here to tell you how your kid needs to be raised, right? I’m here to tell you that he needs to be, or she needs to be raised in the Lord. Right? Again, in my house, we will, we will worship the Lord. And if you don’t know, if you don’t understand, this is the verse I was, I was looking for, right? John 16:13. It says, but when he, the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears. And he will tell you what is yet to come. He can guide you, but we have to be dialed in his parents. And so if there’s anything that I and Michelle are sitting here trying to really put on the table is putting everything in God’s hands.
Shea: This house belongs to God. My child belongs to God. My marriage belongs to God. That tree belonged to God. I was stressed over that tree. Cause you know, you as a husband, you, you, you want to protect your house, but you know what? I gave it to God and I haven’t thought about it since. And then when I came home and it was straight away, I’m just like, God’s got this. God will continue to show himself. We just have to have faith, but we have to be with him. So if there’s anything like again being God, amen, amen.
Michelle: This has been a great conversation. We neither of us really consulted the other on how we were going to take the angles of this and then it just completely lined up. And I love when that happens. Please remember to comment, share, subscribe, review, all those wonderful things that help us spread the word of Christ further. Send us your prayer requests, your questions, your comments, your thoughts to the pantrypodcast.com or the pantry podcast on Facebook or Instagram till next time. Bye. Bye.