God has ordained parents as the primary teachers and disciplers of their children and it is a sacred responsibility and privilege. All the many wonderful Sunday school classes and other children’s and youth programs in your church are no substitute for parents' calling to nurture the faith of their children. Consider these words from Charles Spurgeon:
Let no Christian parents fall into the delusion that the Sunday school is intended to ease them of their personal duties. The first and most natural condition of things is for Christian parents to train up their own children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Let holy grandmothers and gracious mothers, with their husbands see to it that their own boys and girls are well taught in the book of the Lord.
- But what about the children who come to your church who do not have believing parents?
- What about children who are receiving a minimal amount of spiritual nourishment in their homes due to a variety of factors?
- What about children who live in a one-parent home—and that parent is doing the best he or she can but is overwhelmed with simply holding things together?
Even in Spurgeon’s day these were realities, and he does not neglect to address this with great tenderness and earnestness:
Where there are no such Christian parents, it is well and wisely done for godly people to intervene. It is a Christly work when others undertake the duty which the natural doers of it have left undone. The Lord Jesus looks with pleasure upon those who feed His lambs, and nurse His babes, for it is not His will that any of these little ones should perish. Timothy had the great privilege of being taught by those whose natural duty it is, but where that great privilege cannot be enjoyed, let us all, as God shall help us, try to make up to the children the terrible loss which they endure. Come forward, earnest men and women, and sanctify yourselves for this joyful service. (“The Sunday School and the Scriptures, No.1866,” www.spurgeongems.org)
For practical help in the classroom, check out our one-page guide, “Ministering to Children from Non-Christian Homes.”
