Heavenly Homework

PARENTING: THE HEAVENLY HOMEWORK

Too many parents are more concerned with IQ than with CQ—character quotient.

In the end, your child’s character will provide the foundation for his life. I believe the leadership crisis we are facing in our government, in our businesses, and in the church are all traced back to this issue of character.

As Omar Bradley, the famous World War II general said, “We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.”

Do you realize the power you have as a parent? When you help raise children with godly character—children who will follow Christ and withstand the pressures of the world—you are helping shape the world in the next generation.

Building character into a child means building patterns of behavior to respond properly to authority and to life’s circumstances. As tells us, “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

APRIL 27, 2018

About one-third of U.S. children are living with an unmarried parent

BY GRETCHEN LIVINGSTON

��Erin Meredith of Austin, Texas, a single mother of two, paints with her daughter. The share of U.S. children living with an unmarried parent has more than doubled since 1968. (Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The share of U.S. children living with an unmarried parent has more than doubled since 1968, jumping from 13% to 32% in 2017. That trend has been accompanied by a drop in the share of children living with two married parents, down from 85% in 1968 to 65%. Some 3% of children are not living with any parents, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

��Most children in unmarried parent households are living with a solo mother, but a growing share are living with cohabiting parents. Overall, about one-in-five children (21%) are living with a solo mother, up from 12% in 1968. Some 7% are living with cohabiting parents, about double the share that were doing so in 1997 (the first year for which census data on cohabitation are available). The share of children living with a solo father has ticked up, and stands at 4%, up from 1% in 1968. (In this analysis, children are classified based on the parent with whom they live most of the time. Children who split their time equally between households are classified based on which household they were in at the time of the data collection.)

All told, 24 million U.S. children younger than 18 are living with an unmarried parent. Most (15 million) are living with a solo mother. In comparison, 5 million live with cohabiting parents and 3 million live with a solo father. In 1968 – the first year for which these data are publicly available – 9 million children were living with an unmarried parent, 8 million of whom had a solo mom.

The rise in U.S. children living with either cohabiting or solo parents is due in part to long-term declines in marriage, as well as increases in births outside of marriage. But the likelihood of a child – even one born to two married parents – spending part of their childhood in an unmarried parent household is on the rise. Increases in divorce mean that more than one-in-five children born within a marriage will experience a parental breakupby age 9, as will more than half of children born within a cohabiting union.Of the 11 million families with children under age 18, and no spouse present, the majority are single mothers (8.5 million). Single fathers comprise the remaining 2.5 million single parent families. Married couples make up 68 percent of all families with children under age 18, compared to 93 percent in 1950.Nov 17, 2016

The Majority of Children Live With Two Parents, Census Bureau ...

https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2016/cb16-192.html

2 Timothy 3:12–16 NASB95

Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

GODLY PARENTS ARE TO BE PRAISED FOR:

DESIRING A GODLY LIFE. (V. 12-13)

STANDING AGAINST A PERVERSE CULTURE. (V. 13)

The story is told of a fire in Yellowstone National Park, USA. When a forest ranger went to assess the damage, he discovered a bird that was lying dead, black and carbonized, at the bottom of a tree. It was a rather unnerving sight, so he pushed the bird over with a stick. Suddenly, three little chicks scurried out from under the wing of the dead mother. Because the mother had been willing to die out of compassion for her chicks, the chicks under her wing had lived. So many parents protect their kids and would give their lives for their kids. One of the greatest things you can do is give your life for the things Jesus loves. He like that mother gave His life for you and yours. When you live a life for Him, it is a testimony to your chidren.

b. STRIVING TOWARDS VIRTUE.

2. DIRECTING THEIR CHILDREN.

a. TEACHING THEM THE BIBLE.

A six-year-old girl was drawing a picture one day. Her teacher said, ‘What are you drawing?’ The little girl answered, ‘I am drawing a picture of God.’ The teacher was surprised and said, ‘But nobody knows what God looks like!’ The little girl carried on drawing and replied, ‘They will in a minute.’

The first picture of Jesus your kids see will be you. The first exposure to the family of God comes through you.

John 1:18 NLT

No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.

1 Corinthians 11:1 NASB95

Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

b. TRAINING THEM IN RIGHT LIVING.

Tragically, the Titanic sank on 15 April 1912 at 2.20 am. 1,513 people lost their lives. At the time, it was thought that five of its watertight compartments had been ruptured in a collision with an iceberg.

However, on 1 September 1985, when the wreck of the Titanic was found lying upright on the ocean floor, there was no sign of the long gash previously thought to have been ripped in the ship’s hull. What they discovered was that damage to one compartment affected all the rest.

Many people make the Titanic mistake. They think they can divide their lives into different ‘compartments’ and that what they do in one will not affect the rest. However, as Rick Warren (from whom I have taken this illustration) says, ‘A life of integrity is one that is not divided into compartments.’

David prayed for ‘an undivided heart’ (). He led the people with ‘integrity of heart’ (). Supremely, Jesus was a ‘man of integrity’ (; ). How can you and I avoid the Titanic mistake and live lives of integrity?

Psalm 86:11 NLT

Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you.

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Psalm 78:72 NASB95

So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them with his skillful hands.

psalm

Parents give your kids what really matters. Dennis Prager. The Greatest Generation received that title because they survived the Great Depression and the Great World War with the Nazis. They grew up in poverty and faced the threat of eminent destruction in the World War II. They sacrificed to give their children what they didn’t have: Peace and Prosperity. In giving their kids what they didn’t have, many forgot to give what made them strong and resilient faith in the Lord.

3. DEVELOPING A LIFE OF TRUST IN THE LORD.

We’ve seen kids cry out for meaning in life. We’ve also seen the transition from the “me” generation of the Boomers to the fear generation of today. They fear lots of things, increased mental health issues, lunatics with guns, trade wars and mere differences of opinion. Why do so many seem so frail? They have no foundation. By the way, parents, you are the first line of training. Children’s workers, please stand, you are the second line, youth workers, please stand. You are saving lives.

A young man became the sole survivor of a shipwreck off the coast of England. He tried to swim for shore but couldn’t make it. He found a rock he climbed on until rescue. When saved the reporter asked him, “son, were you shaken, scared, and cold.” Well, yes I was, but that rock never shook!

Matthew 7:24–25 NASB95

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.