[Day 4] Building Character
Parents need to help their sons and daughters build character which are proper behaviors and habits. Genuine, exact, strict, diligent, broad, and fine … thirty points of character. The first thing in character development is honesty. Of the 30 points of character, the most important is honesty. Parents must train their children to be honest children.
The attitude towards elders needs to be warm, honorable and respectful. Let your children develop proper behavior and habits and treat their elders with respect and dignity.
As parents, we need to help the children to be loving, caring and harmonious with others. “If possible, as far as it depends on you, live in peace with all men” (Rom. 12:18). “Pursue peace with all men and sanctification, without which no one will see the Lord.” (Heb. 12:14). Blessed are the peacemakers (Mt. 5:9a). It is our responsibility in human society to have love for people, to care for them, and to be at peace with them.
Help children avoid becoming arrogant and pursuing vain glory, but Too much criticism may discourage the child (Col. 3:21). Encouragement should be adopted as much as possible, but how to encourage and praise are very crucial; It is about how you praise him. Children should be praised only for their efforts, hard work, progress made and their good works. To be specific, offer praise for what he does, not for what he is. For what man is born with, that is from God’s creation. What a child becomes later in life is God’s working Himself into man to bring forth a metabolic change in man. This means that we should be careful and mindful in praising and encouraging our children, praising what they do and not what they are, so that they will not become arrogant and proud.
Teach children to be at ease whether winning or losing. Help them to know how to admire others, and to be at ease whether winning or losing (Phil. 2:3-4). As Philippians 2 says, “Doing nothing by way of selfish ambition nor by way of vainglory, but in lowliness of mind considering one another more excellent than yourselves; Not regarding each his own virtues, but each the virtues of others also.” Lead children to learn to plan their time and organize things (Prov. 2:2-6). Children need to learn from an early age how to make a schedule, to plan their time well, and to make good use of it.
Train your children to be generous. Expose them to different people and learn to receive different people. By being exposed to people of all colors and races and by receiving people of all colors and races in church life, the child is trained to be a generous and harmonious person. Parents are to train their children to become a generous person who is able to cooperate with and to lead others.
Train your child to be tolerant of setbacks and to have a positive attitude toward isolation, contempt, discrimination, and persecution due to their faith (Matthew. 5:10-11). Train your children to be strong and grounded and secure in their hearts; therefore, they will be able to face all negativity with humility (1 John 4:4). We need to tell our children that 1 John. 4:4 says, “You are of God, little children; and you have overcome them because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” Children need to be nurtured and trained to stand for the Lord under all kinds of persecution and in all kinds of isolation.
We need to educate our children in such a way that they will become proper and fit for the Lord’s use. When our children’s minds are clear, their emotions are rich, their wills are strong and obedient, and they will make the right choices. They will become a person who is sound in character and prepared to be filled with the Lord and manifest God. Our spirit is the organ for contacting God, and our soul is the organ for manifesting God. When our soul is sound, the life in us can be manifested through us and testify for the Lord.
