“Dad, for what it’s worth, I respect you and Mom even more now after seeing how you’ve handled this whole situation.” Those words from my teenage son meant more to me than he probably knew at the moment.
We don’t always get it right, but this time we did, and he took notice. It reminded me that my kids are watching, learning, and growing in character through the lens of my life.
Character Matters
What is the goal of having children of character? Is it to make us look good as parents? To prevent embarrassment in front of others? To produce moral, good citizens of earth? Unfortunately, all of those things are temporal at best.
However, instilling godly character into our children is a way to tap into their hearts for a lifetime and beyond. Because deep-rooted character in the heart outlasts your words and even your presence as a parent.
Such character produces Daniels and Esthers who can withstand moral decay, standing up to defend truth while surrounded by compromise. True character can solve a host of problems in our children’s lives as they get older. And many of the world’s problems can be credited to a lack of it.
Character Lasts
The old saying that “people rarely change” is often true for both the good and the bad. And at the heart of it all is character. Character is hard to change because it’s hardwired to our hearts.
This is also why character is a worthy goal as parents, because once cemented within the heart, it’s hard to lose for a lifetime.
Every Christian parent desires to instill character into their children, and not character for the sake of character alone, but Christlike character that comes from a heart following after Jesus that naturally produces the fruit of the Spirit.
This kind of Christlike character is as much caught as it is taught.
- Patient, loving parents are more likely to raise patient, loving children.
- Forgiving parents are more likely to raise forgiving children.
- Gentle and kind parents are more likely to raise gentle and kind children.
- I think you get the idea…
“You teach what you know, but you reproduce what you are.” -Howard Hendricks
So this week, may we instill character into our children’s hearts and lives in ways that we can (go be Jesus to your kids today). And may we trust God’s Spirit to clothe them in the character of Christ in ways that we can’t, all while consistently pointing them to Jesus.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23
