Guiding principles
As parents, we deal with a lot of uneasiness surrounding our children’s interaction with the world around them. This uneasiness is revealed when we look ahead toward their future and say phrases like “I am concerned about…” or “These potential situations make me nervous because…”
When we take an honest look at the world, there is a constant barrage of multiple influences, with each one competing for our children’s attention and focus. Some good, some bad, and some have the potential to be good or bad – depending up how they are used. Many times, however, our children don’t even recognize the full consequences of the path they currently travel.
Something or someone is going to influence how they interact with the world around them. However, we cannot give them parental advice for every single decision and conversation they will have in life…so instead we must rely on teaching them governing principles.
The author of Psalm 119 boils it all down to this one thing:
Psalm 119:9
How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping Your word.
The purity – or impurity – of a child’s way of life is connected directly to their actions of keeping God’s word. And that makes sense…since God is the author of life, He knows how it should work, right? But just in case the psalmist’s statement feels a little nebulous, he then spends the next seven verses expanding on what keeping Your word actually looks like.
As you read it, look for the verbs that the young man uses to describe his actions:
Psalm 119:9-16
How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping Your word.
I have sought You with all my heart; don’t let me wander from Your commands.
I have treasured Your word in my heart so that I may not sin against You.
Lord, may You be praised; teach me Your statutes.
With my lips I proclaim all the judgments from Your mouth.
I rejoice in the way revealed by Your decrees as much as in all riches.
I will meditate on Your precepts and think about Your ways.
I will delight in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.
I have sought…I have treasured…I proclaim…I rejoice…I will meditate…I will delight
These are all “active actions” of the young man. These are the things he was taught to do. As he does them, he keeps God’s word. And as the young man keeps God’s word, his way of life is kept pure.
That is the guiding principle for the young man – to have God’s ways become his own ways.
No matter what life throws at them and no matter who tries to influence them, if we have taught our children how to be actively keeping Your word, we will be able to set aside our uneasiness and say, just like the apostle John:
3 John 1:4
I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
Keep Pressing,
Ken