Raising Our Children to Be Successful Physically

By Brian Mitchell       To be successful in every area of life is something that I am sure every parent desires for their children. What exactly it means to be successful and in which areas should they desire to be most successful; well, those are different subjects altogether. That is what this series of lessons is all about. It is a series in which we are discussing what we as parents need to teach our children and in what areas we ought to encourage them to develop in.     As we considered last week, if you want to know how your kids need to develop, there is no place better to go than the life of Jesus. Lk.2:42—Jesus grew in wisdom (intellect), stature (physically), and in favor with God (spiritually) and man (socially). Thus, as we continue through this short series we will discuss the importance of our children growing in each of these areas. We will consider how they can do so, the challenges they will face when attempting to do so, and the blessings they can expect to enjoy when they do so.     Last week we considered helping our children to grow intellectually (intellect—the ability to reason, think). How? By developing and maintaining proper attitudes, by learning how to make proper decisions and by understanding the importance of setting proper goals in life. All of these areas are affected by the way one thinks, and so if we help our children to mature intellectually, they can be successful in all of these areas. Yes, they will face challenges along the way, but they can be successful and they will be blessed when they meet those challenges in the right way.     This week we will consider the fact that Jesus grew in stature. That is Jesus grew physically, as well as, mentally, spiritually and socially. Of all the points that we will cover in these sermons, this is the one area where we will take a few liberties as far as the material covered. I think, however, that as we think together about the points I would like to make, they may not be that much of a stretch after all. While the text itself implies that Jesus grew physically, I think that we could have pretty much guessed that He did that without being told, and so maybe Luke had something more in mind that that.     Of course, if you don’t know how to help your children grow physically, the answer is pretty simple. Feed them, make sure they get rest and barring some physical defect the rest will take care of itself. Now, as I said we are not in this lesson going to be talking about how our children grow physically, but rather how they can and must grow physically in the sense of being people of high morals, not abusing their bodies, or wasting their time.     As we strive to raise our children to be successful in every area of life let us remember to teach them to care for themselves physically. This they can do by heeding God’s word in every aspect of their lives including their morals, their physical bodies and their time. If we will teach these principles to our children, then they like Jesus, will grow in stature.

- Brian Mitchell serves as a minister with the Jackson Church of Christ in Jackson, MO. He may be contacted through the congregation's website at https://www.jacksonchurchofchrist.net