One of the highlights of my Thanksgiving Day was when my son (almost 6 years old) gently reminded me to “be patient, because it a fruit of the spirit.”

Lately I have been wondering if what I’ve been teaching my little ones has really been paying off. As a family we make a lot of sacrifices to live a life according to God’s word.

This is especially so for my husband and I. But lately I just haven’t been seeing the fruits of our labor, or we weren’t reaping much of a harvest. So I was just wondering if it was really worth all the sacrifice.

That is until my son gently reminded me about patience. You see we have this daily Bible Study on the weekdays, and lately we have been studying the “Fruits of the Spirit.” It is a great study to get your children knowing that when we love and believe in Jesus, He transforms our life, and we need to honor Him with our actions.

However it occurred to me, as parents, how can we teach our children what we don’t know? So many Christians out there do not know the word of God. How can we teach our children what the fruit of the spirit is if we don’t know ourselves? How can we raise our children with godly character if we do not know what that is?

Studying the Bible – for a parent – definitely reaps a great harvest.

When we study the Bible it gives us the opportunity to teach our children by:

• Giving us the opportunity to quote scripture to our children.
• We can gently remind our children what the Bible says about a particular situation or how we are to treat other people.
• Making God the center of your family is really the only way to raise our children because we have a book of rules that makes sense, and gives us purpose.

Being a Christian mom, or parent, can be difficult. If we are parenting our children according to the Bible, then we will most likely have to make sacrifices, and even stick out like a sore thumb among the non-believer, or other families. But we must remember that the seeds that we sow are not reaped right away.

I plan to celebrate the moments where the fruits of my labor is shown to me. I am thankful for the gift my son gave me on Thanksgiving, it truly has given me the motivation I need to keep on serving the Lord.