4月1日 教养你的儿女
教养你的儿女
趁着儿女年幼、仍在你持续看顾之下的时候，你要竭力把他们赢得归向神，并引导他们走在通往天国的道路上。
你若任凭儿女长期处在无知之中，其实也是在亏欠自己；因为你不仅要承担自己罪的后果，也会把他们犯罪所带来的后果一并加在自己身上。孩子违背神的诫命，固然是他的罪；但如果父亲从未教导他什么是神的诫命，这罪在某种意义上也落在父亲身上。悖逆的儿女常常成为父母沉重的负担与深切的苦楚；而当父母不得不承认，这悖逆的根源竟与自己在教养上的忽略有关时，就成了苦上加苦、重担叠加，这样的重担几乎令人难以承受。今生还有什么比看见自己的孩子全速奔向地狱更令人心碎的呢？更何况你还知道，是你亲手为他“预备了赛道”。所以，趁着儿女年幼、仍在你持续看顾之下的时候，你要竭力把他们赢得归向神，并引导他们走在通往天国的道路上。
更严重的是：当你把孩子养育在属灵的无知里，你是在得罪神。圣经提到有人“阻挡真理”（罗1:18），其中也包括那些把救恩的知识锁在自己手里、却不肯传给儿女的父母。哪有父母会去抢夺自己儿子的家产呢？但你若忽略孩子的属灵教导，你正是在做这件事；因为神本要你把祂交托给你的“金子”传给儿女，你却把它留在自己的口袋里。若你不给儿女留下敬虔的产业，那么当你死去之后，福音的真理岂不就与你朽坏的骨头一同被埋葬了吗？
若你是神的儿女，那么你的孩子与天父之间的关系，也就比不信之人的孩子更为亲近。神把他们交在你手中，要你照着祂养育你的方式去养育他们，并且不惜代价保护他们，免得他们落入魔鬼的“教育”。用主的道教养儿女，绝不是可有可无的建议；你若拒绝顺服，无论是出于明知故犯，还是出于懒惰疏忽，将来站在万王之王面前受审时，都必为此领受苦涩的工价。
麦琴（麦克谦）读经计划进度
家庭敬拜：利4章，诗1-2章，
个人灵修：箴19章，西2章
APRIL 1, WENDESDAY
TRAINING YOUR CHILDREN
Do your best while they are young and in your constant care, to win them to God and set them on the road to heaven.
You also fail yourselves by leaving your children in a state of ignorance, for you heap upon yourselves the consequences of their sins as well as your own. When a child breaks one of God’s commandments, it is his sin; but it is also the father’s if he never taught the child what the commandment of God was. Wicked children become heavy crosses to their parents. When a father or mother must trace the source of wickedness to his or her own neglect in training the child, cross is laid upon cross and the load becomes unbearable. Can there be a greater heartache in this life than to see your own child running full speed toward hell, and know that you were the one who outfitted him for the race? Oh, do your best while they are young and in your constant care, to win them to God and set them on the road to heaven.
Most important, you fail God when you rear an ignorant child. Scripture tells of those who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Among others, this includes parents who lock up the knowledge of salvation from their children. Where is the parent who will rob his own son’s house? Yet this is what you do if you neglect his spiritual education. For you keep in your own pocket the gold talent God intended you to give to your child. If you leave no godly inheritance, what will happen when you die, and the truth of the Gospel is buried alongside your rotting bones?
If you are God’s child, then your children stand in closer relationship to the heavenly Father than the children of unbelievers. God depends on you to nurture them as you have been nurtured, and to protect them at all costs from the devil’s education. Training your children up in the ways of the Lord is no casual suggestion. Your refusal to obey, whether the product of deliberation or neglect, will pay you bitter wages when you stand before the King of kings in the judgment.