CHILDREN WHO ARE OBEDIENT AND WHO KNOW HOW TO TAKE ORDERS.

The first lesson a soldier learns in training for a Task Force is how to obey. We may as well forget every other lesson if this one is not learned properly. However, before we can teach our children to obey, we must first teach them how to listen.

Listening is the prerequisite for obedience.

I love the picture that is painted in Proverbs 8:34. Can you see this trained soldier who is eager to get into the battle? He can’t wait to be involved. But he has learned that he cannot do anything until he hears orders from his captain. "Blessed is the man that hears me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors."

As soon as your little ones can understand, teach them how to hear. Give orders face to face with eye-to-eye contact. When you know that they have heard you, train them to obey immediately. Mother, you are the one who determines what kind of ears your children have. Do they have lazy ears? Dull ears? Defiant ears? Resistant ears? Forgetful ears?

Read Matthew 13:15-16; Acts 28:27; Hebrews 5:11.

God wants us to train our children to have "obedient ears" Proverbs 25:12, and "swift ears" James 1:19. There are two kinds of children – obedient doers and forgetful hearers. Which kind are you training?

The two main Hebrew words for hearing are:

1. 'shama’ which means ‘to hear with attention and obedience, to give undivided listening attention." When God gave Solomon the opportunity to ask whatever He wanted from the Lord, He prayed, "Give therefore thy servant an understanding (shama) heart…" He asked for a heart that listens to God. The Bible says that this prayer "pleased the Lord." 1Kings 3:3-14.

2. ‘qashav’ which means 'to prick up the ears, e.g. sharpening them like an alert animal.’ Now this is the kind of hearing we want our children to have, isn’t it? This is the word that is used in 1 Samuel 15:22,23, "Behold to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken (qashav) than the fat of rams…"

When your children learn to listen, they’ll learn to obey.

When they learn to obey you, they’ll learn to obey God.

True hearing results in action!

Delayed obedience is disobedience!

Read these scriptures: Proverbs 1:5; 13: 1; 15:32; 23:12; 25:12; Isaiah 30:9

Important point. Is there rebellion in your children? Check your own heart. If there is rebellion in any area in your own heart, you will often see it reflected in your children.