This is a brilliant talk about parenting by Sinclair Ferguson. It will be well worth a listen, whether you have children or not, because it shows how the church is so important to parenting. Every one of us at church has a role to play in the Christian nurture of the children.
Our task as parents and families is not to see how the church of Jesus Christ will fit into our family life, but to fold over our families into the life of the family of the church… Your family will not last long. Your marriage will not last long. If I understand Jesus aright, however difficult it is for me to get my head round it, if there’s no marrying or giving in marriage in heaven, if everything these human relationships are intended to satisfy will be fully satisfied in the glory of Christ and the fellowship of God’s people, then I need to see that my family takes a secondary place to the church family. The church family alone will last for all eternity. My family as it’s presently structured will last only until the death of its members. You see the worldly way of thinking is that we view eternity in the light of time. The biblical view is that I view time in the light of eternity. Therefore, as a parent my responsibility is to fold my family into the life of the church…
Listen to the whole thing here:
