Not Provoke, but Discipline and Instruction

We have all heard that God said “Fathers should not provoke their children to anger.” However, we seldom think much about the second part of that verses in Ephesians.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord. Ephesians 6:4 NLT

We focus only on the “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger.” I’m sure all of us could easily quote that part. Even our children know that part of the verse.

The second part is not so well known or focused on, but it is equally important, if not more so. “Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord”.

God is telling us that we need to discipline our children, and give them Biblical instruction.

Well, what does that really mean, and how can we as parents and grandparents do that? Where do we even start?

When Karen and I were raising our son, we were youth group leaders at our church for many years. However, we never once stopped to think about looking at God’s word to determine how He wanted us to raise our son. I know it is silly, that we were so active in the Church, truly loved the Lord and wanted to follow Him, and yet still did not seek His advice for the parenting side of our life.

It turns out that God gives us a lot of guidance, commands and advice for parents and grandparents about how to raise our children. In fact, Young Adults of Worth Ministries has identified over 110 verses. They cover all types of topics; like love, discipline, obedience, relationships, teaching, forgiveness, prayer, wisdom, and many more.

Essentially, all the instructions for us to be the parents and grandparents God wants us to be, are all in the Bible. We just have to look for them.

That is why YAOW created a seminar for parents and grandparents called Love & Discipline. This 2 hour seminar, covers all of the Bible verses where God gives us direction on how to love and discipline our children. We read and discuss each verse, so we can start to apply them within our families.

Prior to Covid-19, we would hold this free seminar at churches and other venues; however, we are now planning to do them online.

If you are interested in attending one of our parenting seminars, just email info@yaow.org to let us know.

In the meantime, I encourage you to intentionally look for passages as you read scripture, where God gives us parenting advice. Then implement them within your family.

Posted in raisedUP.

Ken Leaman

Ken Leaman has a passion for students, and for over 30 years has been volunteering within churches and other ministries, leading and mentoring students. These churches are:

Ken works for Amazon Web Services as a Support Operations Manager. Ken has also served on the boards of other non-profits like the DFW Technology Prayer Breakfast, and the DFW Help Desk Institute.

Ken, and his wife Karen, have been married for 31 years, and have a 30 year old son. They live in Allen, TX, just North of Dallas.

As Ken and Karen repeatedly witnessed many Christian students who were active within the Church walk away from their faith shortly after graduating high school, they grew frustrated.  Studies show that about 70% of young adults leave their faith after graduation, which is a huge issue since they are the future of the Church.  After much prayer and searching God's direction for many years, the Leaman's felt His calling to start a ministry to address this problem.  In 2014, they gathered like minded Christian professionals to help begin Young Adults of Worth Ministries.  We believe that this ministry is from God, and it will be blessed by Him for His glory alone.