[Gary Petty] We’re starting a series of BT Dailys on “Honoring Your Parents”. How do we teach children how to honor us as parents? Now, we’ll be going through some very basic principles, and the first one is in order to teach children how to honor you as a parent, the first thing you must do is teach them how to honor God. And how do you teach a child to honor God? Well, the most important thing to do is you have to model behavior that honors God. Remember, children – especially very young children – they learn their behavior by modeling what other people do. This means that you have to create a God-centric home, where God and principles of God are what regulate what you do. Otherwise, here’s what we do – we create a parent-centric home.

Here’s what happens in a parent-centric home: we spend all of our time trying to force these children to do what we want. We’re usually reacting out of frustration or anger, but it’s not based on principle. The children learn that, well, you make mom and dad happy, and that means it’s a happy home. And eventually you end up with a constant conflict between you and the child. There has to be a belief, an understanding, in your behavior. They see you concentrating on God and then God teaches things that you do, and then you teach those things to them.

Or the other mistake is we make a child-centric home. You want to create an unhappy person? Create a child-centric home, where those children are the center of everything – their needs, their wants – and you will create selfish human beings who will grow up to usually create very unhappy marriages of their own. So we don’t want a child-centric home. We don’t want a parent-centric home. We want a God-centric home.

The first thing you can do in teaching your children about honoring God is to create a God-centric home where you honor God. That’s BT Daily. Join us next time.