Notes from "Family Practice" by R.C. Sproul, Jr.

I've just been reading a book edited by R.C. Sproul Jr entitled "Family Practice". It has some awesome articles written by a variety of authors. One that really stuck out to me was "Raising Biblically Responsive Adults" by Gary Ezzo.
There is no way I could share the whole article, but I wanted to share a couple of paragraphs that I thought were really meaty.

"The moral goal of parenting is to train them in the ethics of Christ. Today the parents are often more occupied with the child's psychological health than his moral health, more with his happiness than his holiness. As a result and to our shame, the modern church has failed to raise children who are thoroughly moral (Matt. 23:27). Many children know how to act out the Christian life, but do not live it in its reality. This happens because parents tend to tell their children what to do, but fall weak-kneed for the lack of knowledge when it comes to telling them why they should do it. Knowing how to do right and knowing why to do right are distinctly different things. The first speaks to moral action in the present; the second, to a deposit of moral principle for the future.
"To complicate the matter, many Christian parents communicate moral precepts only in moments of conflict. That is, they train primarily in times of correction when suppressing evil and wayward behavior. Suppressing such behavior is important, but when it is done to the exclusion of elevating good, you distort the real meaning of good. When teaching godly principles, these parents tell their children what is wrong and what not to do, rather than what is right and what to do. The path to righteous deeds is left undefined, so the child becomes morally vulnerable, open to the fiery darts of the evil one"

This book is full of meaty tidbits. I recommend it. It's only 98 pages and each chapter is only about 6 pages so it's a fast read for the quality you're getting from it.