In order to fulfill their God given roles of wife and mother, Christian moms need to know what the Lord requires of them. All that we need for life and godliness has been revealed in the Bible (2Peter 1:3).  We need to study it like our lives depend on it, because it really does.

Christian parents are called by God not just to raise any kind of child, but to raise “godly offspring”.

Malachi 2:15
Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.

The responsibility of raising godly offspring falls on both parents, with dad being the head of the house. However, moms are the ones that are usually more involved in the everyday process than dads. They are the ones that take care of all the details of nurturing and training. Also, they are usually the ones the kids go to first with questions about God, the Bible and life in general. This is why I believe every Christian mom should be a theologian.

When I say every Christian mom should be a theologian, I do not mean they have to go to seminary, what I mean is that every mom needs to spend lots of time in the scriptures studying, becoming well versed in it and know how to rightly apply it to everyday life. In order to be a godly wife and mom, her time in the word and prayer and listening to godly sermons is invaluable. No child grows up knowing instinctively the right way to behave, not even Christian kids. They have to be trained to know what is right, proper and godly.

Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Some Christian families have taken this verse to mean that if you train up your child in a Christin home, teach them the Bible and take them to church, then they will definitely become saved as adults. This verse makes no such promise. This is not a verse about salvation, but about training in general.  While the Lord sometimes works through families to save, it is not always the case. We have all heard or know of people were not raised in Christian homes but are faithfully serving the Lord today. Likewise, we also know God fearing parents who raised their children in a godly home, took them church every week whose children remain unsaved. Salvation is of the Lord.

How does one raise “godly offspring”?. Deuteronomy 6:3-7 spells it out for us.

Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.  “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

These verses call the parents to first love God with all their heart, soul and might,  before they are able to teach the children.  Christian mom, the Lord is calling you to love Him with all your heart, soul and might, then and only then, will you be able to teach the word of God to your kids. In other words, you cannot give what they do not have.  How are we to love God?  What does loving God look like? Jesus tells us in John 14:15  “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”.  You have to know the commandments, before you can keep them.

Christian mom, the Lord has graciously given us a manual for life – the Bible. Spend time in it. Study it. Believe it. Live it out. Teach it to your kids. No parent has the ability to save their child, salvation is of the Lord, however every parent has been equipped by God with all they need to teach their children what true godliness is.

May God’s grace be yours.