Yes, our children need to know God personally in their lives. This means we need to know God ourselves - because God is much more likely to be real to them if He is real to us. There are people who send their children to Christian schools because they want them to have a Christian education, even though they are not Christians themselves. I sent an email with Christian content to such a person once - and it was automatically returned to me. I was so shocked. I just naturally expected if her daughter went to a Christian school she must at least be open to Christian messages herself. Obviously I was wrong. I find this quite tragic.

Children need more than Christian values. It's not enough for them to be "Christianized". Anything less than a personal genuine Christian experience is totally inadequate. They need a relationship with God, the One who created them. He knows and loves them even more fully than we do. That's hard to comprehend when we love them so passionately ourselves - but if there is One who loves them even more, then surely they ought to know Him, right?

This is a great big scary world we live in. There are so many evil influences out there that can destroy our children - if not physically, then mentally, emotionally and/or spiritually. There are also many wonderful things in the world - and they all find their origin in God the Creator of all that is good. The most reliable way to protect our children from falling prey to evil influences and grasping all that is good is to lead them to the One who will give their life a steadfast foundation.

Proverbs 3: 6 tells us to acknowledge Him in all our ways and He will direct our paths. Surely any loving parent would want their child's paths through this dangerous world to be directed by the One who will lead them to all that is good, true and meaningful. If we want this for them, we must ourselves acknowledge God to them in their childhood. Then they will be much more likely to acknowledge Him themselves as they grow into adulthood. Even the sweetest, most innocent of children can be led into terrible paths as they pass through the turbulent years of their teens. To be honest, I would be terrified to take the risk of bringing up a child in these times without them having any knowledge of God and His purposes for their life.

I have known of many parents over the years who say that they will let their children make up their own mind when they grow up whether they want

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