TLP 41: Applying God’s Truth to Our Children’s Lives

Truth.Love.Parent.

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And because he's a human child, I know that he will likely forget or choose not to live out our conversation.

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And because God called me to be his parent, I know I'll have the opportunity to use that conversation as a touchstone in future conversations.

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Welcome to Truth. Love. Parents. Where we use God's Word to become intentional, premeditated parents.

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Here's your host, AM Brewster. You know what? Today I am rejoicing.

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God is so good. My life is so blessed because I get to be part of a family.

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God's gift of salvation is the most precious thing I have. Being a part of God's family is my greatest calling and highest pleasure.

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But in addition to that, I'm honored and blessed to be the husband of Johanna and father to Micah and Ivy.

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My Lord and Savior has entrusted this broken, flawed vessel you're listening to right now to be an integral part in the sanctification of my wife and kids.

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That is a weighty and glorious calling. And you know, it just keeps getting better.

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Every day I get to meet searching families and point them to the God they're looking for. I encounter hurting families and introduce them to the only person who can heal their pain.

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I interact with growing families and am privileged to pour the water of God's Word on their already fruitful lives. And I get to bear up broken families with the only divine support guaranteed to keep them from falling.

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I cannot praise God enough for the infinite joy it is to serve Him in His family, my family, and your family.

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And you know what? That's your glorious calling too. That's right. You have been or are being invited to join in God's family by following Christ and trusting

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Him for your now and your eternity. If you're listening to this podcast, you're likely married and God's gifted you your spouse and all the beautiful responsibilities that accompany that.

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And you probably also have kids considering you're listening to a parenting podcast. And that's a reward beyond comprehension that He would entrust those lives to your care.

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And He's also equipping you to be a help and blessing to other parents in the body of Christ. Isn't today a wonderful day?

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All right, abide with me for a minute longer and then we'll tackle today's topic. I praise

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God for our new subscribers. More and more people are finding TLP, listening, and sharing.

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Thank you for being a part of that. But will you consider rating and reviewing us on iTunes? Right now we have six ratings and five reviews, and I am so thankful for them.

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They are all five stars and the reviews are beautifully humbling. But will you consider adding to them?

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The more reviews we receive, the easier it is for other parents to find us. And if we're not doing a good enough job to warrant a review and a rating from you, will you please consider emailing us at staff at evermindministries .com

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and sharing with us how we can get better? We'd greatly appreciate both of those options. Okay, now back to the amazing privilege we have of applying

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God's Word to our family's lives. Application is the single most difficult part of life training.

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To understand this topic, though, we need to be able to separate out the two parts of what it means to train.

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The first part is instruction. Instruction is just similar to teaching or lecturing.

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It involves simply giving information. Now application is the process of using that information to solve, create, or change.

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And it's important to note that we can't actually do the application part for anybody else but ourselves.

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We can teach people how to apply, and that's what today's episode is about, but we can't do it for them. So profitable training always includes these two elements.

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In the martial arts, I need to instruct the student how to throw a correct punch. But then I need to teach them why and how to use that punch in a self -defense situation and why it needs to be done in those ways.

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Webster defines application as 1. An act of putting something to use. Application of a new technique, perhaps.

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And 2. A use to which something is put. For example, new applications for old remedies.

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As I alluded to earlier, there are basically two kinds of application. How application and why application.

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How application works like this. Verb tenses communicate when the action of the sentence took place.

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Now here's what you have to do to utilize the correct tense. And the home, this example may sound like, your room needs to be clean.

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These are the steps you need to take to accomplish that. In the second example, I provided you with information.

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The info was pretty straightforward. Your room needs to be clean. But every parent understands that our version of clean and our children's version of clean rarely coincide.

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Therefore, a wise parent will apply that knowledge to their children's actions. I'm going to show you how you need to clean.

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And you can be super specific in this step all the way down to how they store their shoes, to how they dust their shelves, or how they fold their clothes.

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The more specific the application, the better the outcome. Why application is equally as important, but often harder to do.

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When confronted with, why do I have to do it this way? We often respond, because that's how I want it done. When asked, why do we have to diagram sentences?

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Too many teachers reply, because it's in the book. By the way, it's good for children to ask why.

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They do that naturally because God created humans to learn, and no true learning can take place without application.

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They desperately want to know what all this has to do with their lives. It's also valuable to acknowledge that if my children are incessantly asking me why, it's partially due to the fact that I may not be training them well.

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I'm not answering the questions for them. If why application were part of my daily parenting, I would usually be answering their questions before they're even asked.

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This is what why application sounds like. Here's how you diagram a sentence.

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Diagramming is important because it shows me that you understand what every word in the sentence is doing. If you don't know what the words are doing, you can't use them well.

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And if you can't use them well, you won't communicate well. See, I've now helped my students apply the concept of diagramming to their daily communication.

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Now, as you would expect, the Bible illustrates many powerful ways to apply truth to life.

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There's no specific chapter and verse that says, My beloved Timotheus, make it your daily exercise to couple the glorious Word of our

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God to one another's lives by the sincerest undertaking of illustrations, and it's just not there.

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But the Bible does provide us numerous examples. Today we're going to quickly look at five.

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So number one, we need to know God's truth. You see, you can't apply truth you don't know.

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And you can't teach your children to apply truth if they don't know truth. Colossians 3 .16

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says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

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You can't teach or admonish in wisdom if the word of Christ isn't dwelling in you richly.

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And that leads to number two, utilize God's wisdom. As I mentioned earlier, good parenting involves instructing our children in philosophy, which is why you do what you do.

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So by teaching philosophy this way, you're actually teaching your child to be wise. You're teaching them how to apply.

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Proverbs 25 says, The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.

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This same concept applies to training as well. We could say, the application of truth is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.

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Wisdom itself is application. When your child takes your instruction and correctly applies it to a situation and makes the

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Christ -honoring choice, you would say he's being wise or mature. So if we're going to teach our children how to be wise, we're going to need to be wise ourselves.

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Now, number three is a little bit more complicated. Pre -answer concerns.

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Pre -answer concerns. In one of the most difficult passages in the Bible, Paul unveils powerful realities that he knew his audience would struggle with, and I'm referring to Romans chapter nine.

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So he put himself into their shoes, and while presenting this information, he asked questions of himself that he knew would eventually dawn on his audience.

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Recently, we had to remind the guys who live here at Victory Academy for Boys that it's never appropriate to be disrespectful.

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Showing disdain for an authority's decision is never right. While explaining this, I answered a potential objection that may have then been on their minds or just may pop into their minds later on.

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I told them this, I know it's easy to think we have a right to say whatever we want because we live in America and we all value freedom of speech, but think about it this way.

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Are we free to say whatever we want in God's kingdom? It is true, we have the freedom to say anything and everything that would glorify

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God in the moment, but we never have the freedom to gossip or complain, tear down, or disrespect with our words.

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You see, what I was trying to do there was to pre -answer their objection that they should have the right to say whatever they want and that we need to listen to it if they do.

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All right, quick review. Number one, no truth. Two, utilize wisdom. Three, pre -answer concerns.

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And four, use dynamic stories. I love,

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I just love how Jesus taught. His parables are divine genius.

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You see, we are storytelling people. Plot, characters, settings, and visual images resonate with us because that's how

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God created us and he created us that way because he's a storytelling, narrative -building, plot -unfolding

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God. I use parables and illustrations all the time. In fact, I just did in my story about how I was talking to the boys and it's revolutionized my parenting, my teaching, my preaching, and my friending.

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You can't really understand how powerful it is though until you start to use it. So I would encourage you to try.

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It really is the difference between throwing a bucket of paint against the wall while it's still in the can and purposely applying the paint to the wall with careful brush strokes.

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And yes, that too was an illustration. If this is kind of new to you and you don't find it easy for yourself to use parables or to use illustrations,

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I would just encourage you to start using ones that are already in the Bible. Take the parable of the soils like we talked about last time or the parable of the lost sheep and work this into your parenting.

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That's a great way to get used to using the parabolic illustrations when you're trying to work with your kids.

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And the fifth and final way to apply truth to your child's life is be more specific.

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May I say it's nearly impossible to over -communicate to the average child? I'm not suggesting we say the exact same things over and over in one conversation, though it is abundantly true that repetition aids learning.

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What I am suggesting is communicating in concentric circles. A picture in your mind, a circle with another circle inside and another one inside it, another one inside it, all consistently getting smaller.

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Let me give you an example. I can tell my child he needs to obey God. What I said is obviously true, but if I left the instruction there, he's on his own to figure out what that means and then decide how to apply it to his daily life.

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So, I make my focus a little narrower. I turn over to Galatians 5 and we discuss peace and patience and kindness and love, and we've gotten more specific about what exactly it means to obey

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God. For example, we can see that to obey God we need to be loving. But what if I stop there?

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Does my son know what it means to love? So, I get more specific. I take him over to 1

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Corinthians 13 and we start to understand that in order to obey God we need to love and in order to love we need to stop being prideful and irritable and pessimistic.

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But, what does it look like for my child to be optimistic in his love for his sister? Because I try to live with my son according to knowledge,

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I'm fairly certain that left to himself, again, he will either misunderstand this concept or wrongfully apply it.

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So therefore, the responsibility is on me to be more specific. So, I drill down even farther, helping him to see that when he says things like, she always breaks my stuff, she'll never change, he's not being loving.

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So then I can take him to Ephesians chapter 4 to help him put off that sinful behavior and put on righteous responses.

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Instead of refusing to let her play with his things, he should gladly share his toys. And of course, this needs to be specific to my son and his sister.

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Some things I might have them do may not work with your kids. But is that enough? Did I successfully apply truth the best

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I could? You know, I think many parents make it to this level in their parenting. But if you're paying attention, you realize that I missed a step from Ephesians.

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See, in the book of Ephesians, it tells us that we need to put off and put on. And that's true. Get rid of the bad behavior, put on the good behavior, like changing your clothes.

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But it also says that we need to renew our minds. And that's a step that we often miss.

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Stop doing this. Start doing this. Well, why should they start doing that? Why should they stop doing this?

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And that's the renewing the minds process. It's the picture of us going out and playing some football and just getting totally covered in mud.

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Going back into the house, taking off those dirty clothes, showering, and then putting on clean clothes.

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And what would it be like if we just got all filthy and nasty and dirty and sweaty, and then we just took off the old clothes and put on the new clothes?

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We'd have a problem, right? Well, see, many of our children do the right things in the right ways. My son may let his sister play with his toys, but doing the right thing in the right way isn't necessarily obedience if you're not doing it for the right reasons, if you haven't renewed your mind.

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Remember, philosophy is why you do what you do. That's the core. Wisdom is taking

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God's truth and applying it to life because the wise man fears the Lord. That's the core.

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That should be the motivation. But what if my son is sharing his toys simply because it's expedient, because he's afraid of consequences, because it's easier than arguing, because he wants her to like him, because he wants mom and dad to be proud of him?

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You see, those are actually terrible motivations if they're his only motivation. I need to teach my child to do the right things in the right ways for the right reasons.

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And few people come to those conclusions naturally on their own. So at this point, though, I've tightened my circle almost as small as it can go.

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So I tell my son, you see, bud, in 1 Corinthians 10 31, God commands us to do everything in life for the sole purpose of glorifying

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Him. Glorifying God means that when we do or say things, people have a higher opinion of God because of what we did or said.

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That means when I ask you to share your toys with your sister, you need to do it because you love God and you want your sister to think highly of Him.

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In other words, you want to show His love to her by sharing your toys. You need to share your toys with your sister, not really for your sister, and not even because your dad told you to.

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You need to share your toys because you love God and want to please Him with your life. And that's one little way you can know you're obeying

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God. That's what I mean by being more specific. All of that was a mix of truth and application where I tried to show my son how

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God's Word needs to change how he lives. Now, please don't think that I do this perfectly.

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I don't. Actually, as I do these podcasts, especially as I did one of the earlier ones, I just I sit back and I go, oh, these are things that I need to be working on, too.

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And by God's grace, He gives me victory so often in many of these areas. But I'm growing too.

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I'm trying to become a more intentional premeditated parent. I don't have all of this down, but I'm hoping that you and I can both grow together because of these studies.

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And then in regard to my son, because he's a human child, I know that he will likely forget or choose not to live out our conversation.

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He's not perfect either. But because God called me to be his parent, I know that I'll have the opportunity to use that conversation as a touchstone in future conversations.

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So those are five ways we can apply truth to our children's lives. I need to know God's truth, utilize

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God's wisdom, pre -answer concerns, use dynamic stories, and be more specific.

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I don't know about you, but my biggest hurdle in all of this is parenting laziness. Yeah, I'd much rather just tell my kid to obey and leave it at that.

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It's easier. I'm sure he'll figure it out. But when I do that, I'm setting my child up for failure. You see, my kids' souls are knotted with foolishness, and I need to help them embrace

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God's perfect philosophy of life by helping them understand why they do what they do. And that's going to take time.

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That's going to take turning to a passage in the Bible and then turning to another passage and discussing it.

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I mean, even the examples I gave today were really in many ways shallow because of the time constraints.

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And it's not really a conversation where I'm asking him questions and I'm helping him to see what God's Word says, which is really a more robust and a better way of handling these situations.

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These are just little snippets of what we should be doing with our kids. And because it takes so much time, that's where we get tempted just to be lazy and say, go clean your room the way

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I told you to. Which, of course, is why that's not God's plan for how we should be parenting.

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As always, I've included this information on today's episode notes, and I've linked them in the description. Next time, we hope to discover the most potentially destructive influence in the life of your child.

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Don't miss it. It may surprise you. Of course, Facebook and Twitter still exist, for those of you who are concerned.

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So check out our links below, and you can like us and follow us there. And will you please consider, again, just searching for us on iTunes and leaving a rating and review?

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We would greatly appreciate it. There is nothing we need for life and godliness that God's Word hasn't given us, but sometimes our children need a little more help living the truth.

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So you have fun giving them that this week. Truth. Love. Parents.

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Is part of the Evermind Ministries family and is dedicated to helping you become an intentional, premeditated parent.

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Join us next time as we search God's Word for the truth your family needs today.