Biblical Discipleship is in the Best Interest of the Child

 

 

This guest post is from Samantha Bush, Regent Law 2L and current Family Law student:

          Recently, we learned about parental and children’s rights in the Family Law course at Regent University, and as a mother to a one-year-old girl, this class was definitely of interest to me. We learned that parents have the fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their children, and children have the right to be in an environment that is in their best interest. The state decides the child’s best interest when the parent abrogates this duty. This parental duty prompted me to ask myself, as a Christian, how can I serve the best interest of my child and what does that look like on a practical level?

          I believe that as Christian parents, the discipleship of our children is in their best interest for eternity. Deuteronomy commands us to teach our children the ways of God diligently, laying out a model of intentional discipleship through us as parents modeling a relationship with God daily.

 

          “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” 

Deuteronomy 6: 5-8 (English Standard Version Bible).

It’s important to note that the discipleship of our children is not just in their best interest but in our best interests as followers of Christ as well. This passage of scripture also shows us as parents that discipleship to our children starts with our relationship with God, as we should be the primary influence in their lives. Proverbs says, “[t]rain up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6 (English Standard Version Bible). If we are not discipling our children, they will be left to seek influence outside the home through cultural relativism and the world.

           The takeaway from this scripture transformed this idea of discipleship for me, as I thought my daughter was too young to begin discipling her. However, even as a one-year-old, my daughter is watching everything I model for her, and the Lord commands me to show her how to walk with the Lord through daily encounters and through placing Christ at the center of my life. If that is not convicting and motivating as parents, I’m not sure what is!

          The best interest of my child is to train her in the ways of the Lord through discipleship taught through the intentional modeling of my own relationship with Christ.