Fathers Must Teach Their Children.

I was born as a 5^th born in a family of ten. Life was not easy in my family but my parents supported us as much as they could. My father had to sell his land to ensure my brother and I were able to attend to secondary school education. He taught us the need to sacrifice for others. This was a big lesson in my life and has also applied the same to my children.

Children learn with every step you take as a father, every word you say, every conversation with their mother, every responsibility you take, and everything you neglect. You model them. They look at all that you do. They learn from you. It important to teach them. As a father:

1. Teach your children the Golden Rule: ¹² So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (Matt. 7:12). When you practice it on them, when you decide that their happiness matters to you, and that you’ll listen to their likes and dislikes, children would want to apply these values to others.

2. Teach them the value of hard work. It is important to weigh on them on work and work ethics. Share your history with them and how you have reached where you are. Let them learn from you about work.

3. Teach them patience: ¹¹ But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. (1 Tim. 6:11). Remember that instructing them takes time. A child doesn’t become an adult in a day, and instruction and correction over a number of years is the thing that sticks. Consistency, over time, is what gets the lesson taught. Patience is instructing them again and again.

4. Teach them to keep their speech clean: ⁴ Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. (Eph. 5:4). Correct them when they speak words which hurt and whose purpose is not to build others. Children should be careful in their use of words.

5. Teach them discipline and self-control: ³ without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, (2 Tim. 3:3). Children learn the discipline of self-control from their fathers when a standard is fairly applied, and when the father lives by that standard as well.

6. Teach them to have visions for their lives: Fathers are visionaries in the families. Share with the children some of your visions. This will put a desire in them to want to have their own visions. Teach them how to set their visions, goals and objectives.

7. Teach them what is important when you take action. Go the extra mile when the cause is important. What makes you jump will make them jump. If your wife has had a hard day, and you volunteer to do the home chores, you’ll teach your son how to treat his wife. If you see someone stranded and in need of help, even when it costs, you’ll teach your children doing good.

8. Teach them love: ²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. (Eph. 5:25). They will learn love by the way you love their mother. There is so much more: sacrifice, faithfulness, the keeping of promises, all lessons learned through good and bad times.

9. Teach them devotion to God: Many have wondered why their children don’t love the church and don’t value the truth when they never learned that lesson from the father. The man that worships at every opportunity makes a powerful statement about devotion to God.

10. Teach them to pray. Children are keen to learn from the parents how to pray. The father is both a prophet and priest in the home. Model them in prayer.

Finally

Children learn what to think and believe, what’s important and what’s not, and ten thousand other things from their fathers. Fathers teaching their children is walking with them and showing them how to live. It is modelling. They will see how you are doing or how you are speaking and copy you. A father is a walking, talking, breathing, and living object lesson for his children.

As fathers, we must relook at ourselves and find where we failed and not blame the children for the things they are doing but adjust and take up our rightful roles as teachers to our children. We must offer valuable lessons to our children to help them steer into the future challenges in their lives. They will live to honour you.