Bringing It Up or Upbringing

Bringing it Up or Upbringing

“And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭6:19-20‬

It’s amazing to me just how many people have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

This is one of those reoccurring thoughts I have.  I’ve had discussions about this with friends and my wife and have come to some conclusions. 

First, it’s not a thought to take lightly. If you’re a Christian, you directly impact this and you are, we are, responsible. 

And sitting here thinking about it more, I realize that it’s deeper than a daily devotion. 

None of us will truly be able to comprehend the number of people that not only don’t know the gospel, but have never heard of Jesus Christ. 

So who’s fault is it really? I mean someone has to take the blame. So I’ll be the first to stand up and say, “me”. 

In a conversation I had with my wife, a school teacher, it came down to this......

Upbringing versus bringing it up. 

Where did we go wrong?  Was it our upbringing or did we fail by not bringing it up?

This theory is applied in our community for this devotion, although I guess it could be applied nationwide or universally. For now, we will stick with what we know and where we are. 

I’m going to attempt to lay it out the best I can. And full disclaimer, this is only my opinion, if you have another one, that’s awesome. Also, I’m not talking about how we raise our children. I’m talking about the importance of God being introduced into our lives. Read on. 

My brother and I grew up in church. We went to a Christian school as part of our education. We had bibles. We had to pray before meals at the table. We went to Sunday school. We were baptized at an early age. We were introduced to God very early on. I deviated from God somewhere in life, so did my brother, however he returned much sooner than I did.   We had a pretty good upbringing that included God. 

Nevertheless, God is a very important part of our lives today and will be til the end.  We both make God, church, prayer and the Bible very very important in our lives. This in turn is important in our wives lives and our children’s lives. For Ashley and I, it is important in Lucas’s life, our ten year old son. It wasn’t always like this. Not at all. We are now doing our part to make sure God is at the center of our lives and Lucas’s life. It is part of his upbringing.

Lucas has heard the gospel, understands it and has turned to Jesus Christ as his savior. 

This is one example of upbringing.

Now take all of the history from above and throw it out the window.  Take Lucas and make him twenty years old. Take away the prayer at meals, church, VBS and Christian school. Take away anything and everything that has to do with the Christian religion and take it out of his life. From the beginning until now.

Think about it. Where does he turn? What influences does he have? What does he bring up to his children?  If it was never brought up to him chances are he won’t bring it up to anyone else. It’s hard to tell someone about something you don’t know of.

God is being removed from our schools. It is being taken out of our Pledge of Allegiance. God is no longer introduced to children because parents weren’t introduced to it. And when parents aren’t introduced to it, how do they introduce to their children? Children will become adults and many of them will become parents.

I’m still so very new to all of this. A youngster in my Christianity. And not so long ago I would say that we had to reach the children. And even though that is extremely important, the parents carry the responsibility to continue to bring it up. They will be the ones doing the upbringing. 

The parents, the adults in their lives don’t know and if they don’t know how can they bring it up to their children?  The children will carry the gospel of Jesus Christ through their families as they grow older and have children of their own. It’s a cycle that can unfortunately be broken. 

There are so many families where the parents are believers and yet they still don’t make God the centerpiece of their family. I didn’t. I believed in God, and I still didn’t do it. It would have had a very lasting effect on my family. Permanent as a matter of fact. Trust me, it didn’t go so well leaving it up to me entirely.

And then there are families where the parents are young and The Gospel was never spoken to them. How do they even begin?

And I’m not just leaving it at families and children.  It is our responsibility as Christians to bring it up to everyone. We can’t raise other people or their children. We can’t fix that. But we can bring up Jesus Christ every chance we get. We can tell people about Him. If we make it important in our lives, no deviation, no hesitation, no reservations, He will be important to others. We can lead, reach and teach people about Jesus Christ.

We are diluting Christianity, one family at a time. We can’t place the responsibility on the children when the parents should carry the burden. We should look back at ourselves and realize the importance and that the responsibility is ours.

We can’t continue to make excuses for ourselves, me included. We reach people every day. We walk by people all the time. We talk to friends, neighbors, relatives and strangers and never say a word about the God we pray to. 

Tomorrow is the birth of our Savior. 

The sad thing is that most people will celebrate Christmas and the presents they get. They will believe in Santa Claus, but not in Jesus Christ. Many, it is because they know Santa more than Jesus. It’s because more Santa movies, books and activities are done - more so than those that tell the story of Jesus. 

Which will you make important in your house or your life?

“And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭6:4‬

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭10:17-18