My Home, My Kids, My Responsibility – How To Take Responsibility for Raising Godly Children

How do you take responsibility for raising Godly children and for having a home  where Jesus is Lord?

It is up to you.

I have have had the privilege of interacting with  a number of young people, especially in church on a regular basis as a Teens Pastor. I also have school aged children that are mine.

I have found it very interesting when I hear parents complain about how the church is not influencing their children enough to do the right things.

The infographic below shows the proportion of time the average child spends in church compared to the amount of time spent in other places like schools and home.

This implies therefore that God did not design the Spiritual education of our children to be handled solely by the church or by other people.

Based on statistics, our children spend most of their time with us as their parents. Why then are parents quick to blame everyone else when things do not go according to plan?

At, Families Arising, our basic focus is on helping you to parent with purpose and Intentionally. Children will not just raise themselves, and No, the school and church won’t be doing the raising for us either. They can only render help.

It is our sole responsibility as the parents to do the raising. If anything goes wrong, God won’t be holding the school or the church responsible for what we ought to have done as parents.

The Spiritual, physical, mental discipline kids require should be started from home. We were taught that basic fact in school when we were much younger:

“The basic unit of any society is the family”

The family is where the first level of raising kids starts from. That does not, however, mean that you should not ask for help when you need it. But, the buck stops at your table.

That child care giver, that school, that Sunday school class, that maid or nanny…they are all to help us get our primary responsibility done.

What Can We Do To Be More Deliberate about Training and Nurturing our Children Spiritually?

1. Develop a Parenting Plan: Just like we would set goals for ourselves to achieve something, it is important for us as Christian parents to actually have a parenting plan in place. This plan can be developed together as a family and it doesn’t have to be anything fancy. It is just to clarify the vision of the kind of family you want to have. It addresses the question of “who do we want to be?” or “what do we want to be known for?”.

2. Develop the Practical Strategies to begin to see your family vision actually happen. Practical steps like holding regular prayer and bible study time, creating a plan for spiritual education, staying consistent with a plan, are all things you can begin to put in place to help you achieve the goals of the kind of home you wish to build. You should answer the question, “what exactly do we need to do to see ourselves fulfill the vision of our family plan?”
Now that you have chosen to be intentional about Godly parenting, what will you do to make it happen?

Listen to the podcast of this post here

3. Ask for help if you need it: No one person knows everything and if you’re new to intentional Godly parenting, you may not really know what to do or were to get resources to help you. Maybe you don’t know how to teach the bible to your kids in a way that they can understand, or you need resources to use during your family devotions. Whatever  you may need, just ask for help or research.

For instance, one very useful tool that my family has used over the years, has been the Bible app from YouVersion Bible App (available on mobile app stores also). There are so many different bible plans that can be useful to you and that can help your family grow spiritually. There are also books that you can read to empower you to get more intentional about spiritual education for your family.

At Families Arising, we also offer courses to help you on your journey of intentional parenting and you can check out our programs and resources on our website.

The most important thing to remember is to ask for help.

4. Remain Consistent: You cannot know everything in one day and it will take time for you to see the impact of your investment on your family. What should you do if you don’t begin to see immediate results? Give up on raising your children intentionally or give up on raising Godly children? Of course not! You stay consistent and keep at it. There will be times when you will forget to pray together, other times, life may be overwhelming for you and you don’t get to pray as often as you desire. But you won’t give it all up, you keep tweaking and adjusting and before you know it, the habit is formed and your family is well on its way to developing that consistent atmosphere of Godliness and spiritual discipline.

So, how can you take responsibility for raising your children in the way of the Lord?
It is to decide to be intentional about it and then begin to take action. And God will meet you halfway, open up resources to you and give you the grace you need.

Do you not know that He is even more interested in the spiritual growth of you and your family than you are about it? Yes, He desires it even more than anything else.

Your Kids and Your Home are 100% your responsibility. Take that task very seriously.

Stop the blame game.

Do you have any practical steps you take to keep your family intentional about being deliberate in raising Godly children? Please share with us in the comments.

Yours in The Journey,

Oluseye