Parents mean well, but make mistakes. I know; I am one. Children make mistakes too. So, when I hear the comment, “Raise up a child in the way he should go, he’ll not depart from it…” spoken in a religious, pride-filled, I-got-a-guarantee way, I cringe.
But, truth be told, we do not raise our children in a church so they can be perfect Christian specimens or simply do not sin and/or make wrong choices, because they do. Kids raised in a local church with their parents have the capacity to follow God or not; parents cannot force that.
Your local church should be reinforcing your values as a parent, providing a healthy youth group and reinforcing through other like believers what you as a parent are teaching them at home.
Our desire as parents in showing them the way of faith is to be preventative as much as it is to build eternity in their hearts. We want to give them the purpose and meaning of life so they walk in that purpose for themselves, maintaining the boundaries that God has written in His word.
As well, when our children do mess up they have an advocate with the Father, His Son. They will know forgiveness and truth that sets them free. When our children fall short of God’s glorious ideal, just as we do as parents, they’ll know Who they can go to. They’ll know His love and His approval along with His love-filled correction. They’ll discover that even when they do wrong their heavenly Father never leaves them or forsakes them. In fact, when being honest with God, He’ll embrace them even more.
Parents have the choice to offer unconditional love to their children on a daily basis. While the child may know this and take it for granted, it’s only when they mess up that they realize the grace and forgiveness found within true unconditional love.
The fact remains, nothing can separate us from the love of God. And God’s discipline is a part of that love. When we as parents correctly, respectfully and without anger bring correction to our children, we are modeling the love of God to them.
As a parent of three 30-40 somethings and four grandchildren, I will never apologize for training my children to love God first so that all good things from God can follow. I will never apologize for taking them faithfully to a local church, to church camp or encouraging them to travel with me around the world to minister to others. I will never apologize for taking the time to have family devotions, teaching my children the practical application of the word of God in their lives. All of these things are collectively fulfilling Colossians 1:28 and Galatians 4:19:
He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.
My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.
As parents, our goal is not to build “us” in our children, but rather, to actively and by example build Christ in them.
Steve Prokopchak 
Raising our children in “church” is not necessarily the same as “in the Way.” I know. I was raised in “church.” I talked the “talk.” Walked the aisle. Twice. Took a bath in the big cool bath at the front. Twice. All to please the “church.” And family. And it meant nothing. To me, to God, to the world.
You see, the Way is not what is taught in church. The Way is what is taught in the Bible. Sticking your children in church and thinking they are safe is the biggest fallacy a Christian parent can make.
We must train and bring up our children in the Way of the Lord. Teach them to defend their faith whether they have faith or not yet. Show them how to stand firm in the furnace. The church won’t do this. We must as parents.
Teach them the Way of the Lord and when they are older they will not depart from it.
And the most important? Pray for our children without ceasing.
The challenges, obstacles, attacks and outright apostasy they will face in their young walk with Christ will be astronomical.
As a mother of a Christian man who went to UT at Austin as a young teenager right out of school from a rural high school in Wyoming, trust me, PREPARE YOUR CHILDREN IN THE WAYS OF THE LORD.
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