Season 3, Episode 10, Discipleship Kids Edition, Teaching Your Children the Two Paths in Life

Join Lori as she encourages parents to teach their children the two life path choices laid out in Scripture.

Transcript

Well Hey Friends, this is Lori Joiner, your discipleship coach. I hope you are enjoying these podcasts as I have really emphasized this season the biblical mandate for parents to take ownership of their child’s spiritual development. Not to leave this task up to the church but to take the reins and think about the Biblical formation of your child in a serious way. 

If you have benefitted so far from these short messages, please share this podcast with a friend, family member, co-worker, neighbor, etc. I know YOU want to raise YOUR children unto the Lord. But it is actually also important that the people around you do the same. Their children will be leading this country, the teachers of this nation, the government officials, so don’t we want them hearing this timely teaching as well? 

God has taught very clearly all through scripture of two diverging paths that the person on this earth has to choose between. God gives no middle ground. There are two paths, and two paths only. 

So today, your Discipleship coach kids edition tip is…to teach your children about the two paths in life. What do I even mean about this? I want to break down a few Bible passages for you, then I will share how I have taught this to my sons, and am, in an ongoing way, teaching this to my sons.

Ok, I am going to take us on a little journey to unpack this concept, just hang with me and absorb what the scriptures say…

Let’s start in the Old Testament. God, when speaking to the Israelite people said, 

Deuteronomy 30:15, “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.”

 
Ok, so here we see the two paths are either Life and Prosperity or Death and Destruction.

Deuteronomy 30:19, “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life…”

 
Here the paths are described as Life and Blessings or Death and curses. 

Psalm 1
1 Blessed is the one
     who does not walk in step with the wicked
 or stand in the way that sinners take
     or sit in the company of mockers,
 2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
     and who meditates on his law day and night.
 3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
     which yields its fruit in season
 and whose leaf does not wither—
     whatever they do prospers.

4 Not so the wicked!
     They are like chaff
     that the wind blows away.
 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
     nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
     but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

 One path is walking in step with wicked people, and mockers. Choosing this path leads to being fleeting like chaff in the wind, not standing with the righteous on the day of judgment, and ultimately this path ends in destruction. 

The other path is with those who delight in God’s laws, meditate on God’s Word. Choosing this path will lead to a fruitful life, standing with the righteous on judgment day, and having God watch over your life. 

Ok, one more Old Testament passage from Jeremiah 21:8 where God says- “Furthermore, tell the people, ‘This is what the Lord says: See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death.”

Ok, so we are putting together this picture of two ways of life. Now, let’s turn to the New Testament and see Jesus' teaching on this subject. 

In Mathew 7:13-14 we come to Jesus teaching on The Narrow and Wide Gates. It says, 

13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

So we have Jesus teaching the multitudes during His famous Sermon on the Mount and here he is describing narrow and wide gates, and narrow and broad roads. 

One gate and road that leads to destruction, death, and hell.

One gate and road that leads to life.

The narrow gate (or Luke calls it a door) is talking of salvation. Recall Jesus himself called himself the gate. 

John 10:9-“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.”

It is the narrow way of salvation that involves faith in Jesus Christ as the only Savior. Once you place your faith in Christ, the narrow gate, you are to stay on and continually choose the narrow road. 

This scripture journey could go on and on-I could point you to the two types of builders-one building on sand and one building on Rock. I could point you to Ezekiel in the Old test chapter 11 where God seeks to have his people have an undivided heart-to choose one path, the righteous path, and stick to it, I could even take us to Revelation where Jesus says he does not want lukewarm followers-that when we are lukewarm, not shooing one path or the other, it makes him want to vomit. 

All through scripture we are continually confronted with two ways to live, two paths to follow, and that there is no middle ground. 

What does this mean for our children? This means that we have got to be clear about the two paths. That all through life, they will have opportunities to choose the narrow path. That they will most likely be in the minority when choosing to follow God in righteous living. 

I have mentioned this to my sons in varying degrees all during their lives. They have been taught, from scripture by me and by church leaders about building their house on the solid rock of Jesus Christ. 

Meaning to place our faith in Christ and build our lives seeking his will at each turn. That to not place our faith in Christ is shaky ground, like sand in a storm, it is not stable and will not help us in life or eternity. Josh and Jake could 100% recite these Bible teachings at ages 11 & 13. They could have done it much earlier as well. So that was step one, to teach the Bible stories.

Step two is to remind them of the two paths throughout their life. I may say driving in the car, “Boys, God is clear in scripture that there are two paths in life. Do you recall what those paths are? What are examples of people in your junior high choosing the wide path? What are examples of kids choosing the narrow path? I may do this conversation while I am driving, while I am fixing lunch this summer, while they are telling me stories about their day at school and I can connect their story of a situation with this biblical teaching. 

I promise you, as they get older and perhaps make unwise decisions I will say, Son, I would rather you choose life. You seem like you are might be heading down the wide road that leads to destruction.

My friends, it is sad that many church-going kids are not clear there are two paths! They are obliviously choosing the easy, popular path completely ignorant there is a choice.

Third, I reiterate this in my prayers for them weekly! I will pray for Josh and Jake at night and in the morning-

“Oh Lord, please keep Josh on the narrow path today. Please help him stand strong in the temptation to choose a path that would lead to destruction. Or “Oh Lord, thank you Lord that Jake is yours, he is your sheep, he hears your voice and you can empower him to build a fruitful life on you-His solid Rock of salvation!” 

“Oh Lord, I pray today that if everyone is choosing the easy path, the wide path, you would give Josh and Jake the leadership, the fortitude to follow you in righteous living even if they follow you alone.”

So teaching the biblical stories and parables to your children, helping them to apply them to life as you ask them questions, and praying this over them as they grow is the goal. The Bible is clear about two paths, I exhort you to teach your children clearly the two paths. 

We need to say to our children-“There are two paths in life-I want you to choose God’s way. I am praying for you and raising you to be able to choose God even when it is tough. His way leads to a life of fruitfulness, His way leads to him watching over you, His way leads to you standing with the righteous on judgment day. You will have to choose-I pray you choose life! 

Let me pray-