The Duties of Parents: Parenting Your Children God's Way

by J.C. Ryle

if you love your children, let the simple Bible be everything in the training of their souls and let all other books take second place. Don’t worry about your children being mighty in the catechism, but help them be mighty in the Scriptures. This is the training that God will honor. The psalmist says of Him, You have magnified Your word according to all Your name (Psalm 138:2), and I think that He gives a special blessing to all who try to magnify it among men. Be sure that your children read the Bible reverently. Train them to look on it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, written by the Holy Spirit Himself – all true, all profitable, and able to make us wise unto salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus. Be sure that they read it regularly. Train them to regard it as their soul’s daily food – as a thing essential to their soul’s daily health. I know that you cannot make this anything more than a habit, but there is no telling the amount of sin that a mere habit might indirectly restrain. Be sure that they read it all. You don’t need to shrink from bringing any doctrine before them. You don’t need to assume that the leading doctrines of Christianity are things that children cannot understand. Children understand far more of the Bible than we think possible. Tell them about sin, its guilt, its consequences, its power, and its vileness; you will find they can comprehend much of this.