【Day 1】Review the First Four Lessons & Reconsider “What Is Education”
I hope that through this series of fellowships, parents will learn to pay attention to their children. The sisters should take the lead in setting an example for the children to bring their husbands into this fellowship so that the children will eventually enjoy family time to the point that they will ask for family time on their own. When the child goes to college, they may miss and want to have family time with their parents once a week. Moreover, nowadays, the internet is very convenient, and so is WeChat and the telephone, which is terrific for family time to be continued no matter where your children are. So, we hope parents can take the lead to utilize these technological advances as a means to build their family time
No matter how old your child is, now is the best time to build a relationship with them. When your child is older, it will be more challenging. Whether your child is in high school, middle school, elementary school, or preschool, now is the best time to establish family time. Family time mainly builds a parent-child relationship of love and communication that may bring the children before the Lord. When the child faces some challenges or problems, they will know there is a place to ask for and seek help. Because we know to trust the Lord in our experience, we know to pray and we can pray to him for the timely help. When a child has a good and trustworthy relationship with their parents, he/she will have the opportunity to have a continuous connection and fellowship with their parents; such a connection and fellowship is vital. The purpose of our series of lessons is to help parents develop a sense of urgency and priority to begin building an intimate parent-child relationship with their child.
Parents should have some expectations for their children. First, that they will be the seed of the gospel – preach the gospel of the kingdom and be a witness for the Lord; second, be the first fruits – before the great tribulation, when the Lord returns, the Lord will receive 144,000 first fruits (Rev. 14:1-5), in the hope that our children will be one of these 144,000 first fruits to hasten the Lord’s return; third, to be good material for the building up of the body of Christ as the Lord desires to have a Body of Christ built up, a prepared bride, so our children should learn how to get along, cooperate, and build up with others from an early age. These should be our goals and expectations for today’s children’s education, training, and perfection.
“The relationship of love between parents and children” emphasizes that parents should love their children in a divine and human way; only this kind of love is powerful, life-giving, and can perfect their children. “Parents’ discipline of their children” – everyone is born with a fallen, sinful and rebellious nature. The negative side of discipline is to help overcome their sinful nature and rebellion so that they can learn to obey by sinning less or not sinning at all. The positive side of discipline is to make the child know the rules and regulations. Then through the external rules and regulations, to internalize them so that he or she can learn self-discipline. Eventually, after they receive the divine life into him, he or she can live under the divine regulation. That is, from the external law to the internal law to the divine regulation so that he or she can live a sanctified and holy life unto God.
“Parents and Children Communication” parents should learn to communicate well with their children at a young age to bring them into fellowship with God through prayer. How do we communicate with people? We must learn from God’s example, the Lord Jesus. The four Gospels show the Lord Jesus communicated with people first by asking questions, then listening intently and attentively, so that the people’s hearts would be opened to Him. The Lord then proceeded to speak. Most parents may not listen to their children but may ask their children to listen to them, so frequently, they do not have good communication. Therefore, if we want to learn to communicate well with our children, we must learn to listen, that is, to listen with our ears and look with our eyes; our mouths are used to ask questions, not to teach, rebuke, or condemn. When a parent cannot accept a child’s behavior, use the “I-message” to let the child know how his/her behavior makes the parents feel. Whether it is between husband and wife, siblings, classmates, or co-workers, we all need to learn to communicate with one another. Especially in church life, many problems are caused by improper communication; poor communication brings misunderstanding. Satan, the devil, injects many negative thoughts into man, bringing many difficulties to the church life. Therefore, it is crucial to learn and practice good communication.
