Educate Children in the Fear of God

Then you must teach yourwives in the faith delivered to them and in love and purity-to cherish their own husbands in all fidelity, and to love all others equally in all chastity, and to educate their children in the fear of God.
Letter of Polycarp to Philippians (4:2)

Let us rear the young in the fear of God.
Let our children have a Christian training. Let them learn the value God sets on humility, what power pure love has with him, how good and excellent it is to fear him, and how this means salvation to everybody who lives in his fear with holiness and a pure conscience. For he is the searcher of thoughts and of desires. It is his breath which is in us; and when he wants to he will take it away.
I Clement 21:6,8

When I left to catch up on reading, I decided to read some letters written by the early church fathers. The themes of unity, peace and sacrifice for God (martyrdom) were repeated througout.

Beyond these themes, I was struck by the comments written above. Sometimes we are so consumed with educating our children academically that we forget our primary goal should be educating our children in the "fear of God". I plan to spend some time tomorrow morning praying about this idea and seeing where I fall short in rearing my kids in the fear of God. I believe it is so important to start teaching kids about fearing God when they are young, so it will be a natural habit as they grow older.

Homeschooling (& leadership education/mentoring) is much more than academics. It should center on:

• humility
• power of pure love
• goodness & excellence
• fearing God
• holiness
• pure conscience
• God's sovereignty

I think I have my list of things to do with my kids for awhile. What about you?

Kerry