You and your children are invited to the spiritual delicacies that God offers. Drink deeply from his river of delights. Immerse yourselves in this fountain that will never run dry. You have the privilege of saying, "Children, there is an abundant Christ who can quench the thirst of your soul. You were made for him. Don't exchange the truth for a lie. Worship and serve the Creator, not created things."

Delighting in God restores your sense of what is ultimately valuable. Worship of God energizes you to seek joy and satisfaction in him alone. This world is fleeting and unworthy of your heart's devotion. Delight in God awakens the soul; at the same time everything else in life that competes with God for your devotion fades. The heart that is delighting in the glory of God is inoculated against the noisy demands of the world.

Help your children delight in God. You may be thinking, "I wasn't looking for heavy theology; I was looking for practical child rearing advice." Remember this. Your children are not likely to grow into adults who truly know God unless you provide them with a big God who is worthy of worship. Describe God's character, his mighty deeds and the soul-satisfying joys of knowing him, reminding them, "Children, your souls are looking for satisfaction and it is only found in God."

If you want your children to have a reason to sing on Sunday, give them a glorious God. If you want your children to have a reason not to sin on Monday, give them a glorious God. If you want them to think of nobler things than the latest, mind-numbing video fantasy game, give them a glorious God. If you want them to dream grander dreams than illicit sex or more money or more stuff, give them a glorious God. If you want them to have a reason for confidence when life seems to spin out of control, give them a glorious God.

When friends are offering the pleasures of sin for a season, they need a glorious God. Godly fear--that sense of awe and reverence that inspires true worship--requires a glorious God. God is the one before whom they should tremble and worship with reverence and awe. The glory of God will stoke the fires of true worship and godly living.

Where will the human hunger be satisfied? Rest in God alone. Isn't it amazing that Christ sacrificed himself for you and me? Lasting happiness is found in making much of God for eternity. There is a transcendent satisfaction in God which trials and difficulties cannot diminish and which success and pleasure cannot enhance.

We live in perilous times. Modern evangelism has reduced the message and purpose of the gospel. Much of evangelical Christianity is focused on getting people to pray the sinner's prayer so that they can go to heaven. The heart of the gospel is the glory of God. God is so jealous for his own glory that he sent his Son to redeem broken, sinful, unworthy people (Isa. 42:8). The Son prayed that his followers would see his glory (Jn. 17:24). The glory of God moved his holy heart to choose a people (Rom. 9:23).

God extends grace to broken people for his own glory. God is glorified when he is treasured above all, when he is your greatest prize, when he is your fountain of delight. The proclamation of salvation is a proclamation of the glory of God. The heart of the gospel is the glory of God. He is great and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. Splendor, glory, and majesty are his. He reigns.

God does not exist for man; man exists for God. Jesus Christ restores broken, fallen man to a true worship of God. The God of the Bible is the supreme object of worship. Jesus Christ saves sinners and makes them worshipers.

Excerpted from Instructing a Child's Heart by Tedd and Margy Tripp; pages 101-104.

I am often asked, “How can I help my toddler understand the heart of selfishness? I don’t want to just correct him; I want to shepherd his heart.” As you have probably observed, most toddlers are not terribly self-conscious about motivation. It will be far more difficult to have a meaningful dialog with a toddler than with a teenager. Teens are more self-aware and therefore, possess a greater capacity for such a discussion.

So I usually tell parents, “You can’t really talk with toddlers about motivational issues. They lack the sophistication and insight needed to meaningfully talk about heart issues.” What a parent must do with a toddler is present the standard of God’s law using good robust words. One might say, “Honey, you must give that toy back to your brother. He was playing with it. It is selfish for you to take it from him. That is not serving your brother. Jesus says we should be kind to others.”

The parent is setting out an expectation and providing biblical terms to describe sin (selfish) and righteousness (serving, kind). It would be fruitless to ask the toddler what he was thinking or feeling at the time. He lacks both the grammar and the insight to respond.

So, for the young child, the proper intervention is to direct appropriate behavior and provide biblical descriptions of what is wrong and what would be right.

Another common misunderstanding of shepherding relates to older children. Many have the idea that since we are shepherding hearts, not just requiring behavior, we cannot hold our children to a standard. One dad said, “I did not want to be a legalist and tell him he had to share with his sister, I wanted to shepherd his heart.”

There are three things wrong with this statement. 1) It is not legalism to require children to do what is right. Legalism is a false path of salvation. Legalism is the idea that I can earn acceptance before God by doing what is right. 2) Shepherding the heart does not mean I cannot tell him to share with his sister. Telling my son to share with his sister is appropriate. God’s law calls him to do that; Dad has no right to lower God’s standard. 3) Shepherding the heart is about maintaining biblical standards.

Shepherding a child’s heart tells me how to maintain those standards. Shepherding means I come to him as a humble person who understands how hard it is to share. It means I appeal to his conscience; that instructs him that sharing is right. Shepherding means I encourage him that God can give grace to share even when it is hard to do. If he is old enough to deal with abstract concepts, shepherding means I help him understand the ways his unwillingness to share expresses love of self rather than love for God that would enable him to love his sister.

The goal in all this is to help children understand how profoundly they need the grace and mercy of God. The law of God is the schoolmaster that leads to Christ.

Tedd Tripp

God is concerned with the heart the wellspring of life (Proverbs 4:23). Parents tend to focus on the externals of behavior rather than the internal overflow of the heart. We tend to worry more about the what of behavior than the why. Accordingly we spend enormous amounts of energy in controlling and constraining behavior. To the degree and extent our focus is on behavior we miss the heart. The results are disastrous.

When we miss the heart, we miss the subtle idols of the heart. Romans 1 makes it clear that all human beings are worshipers; either we worship God or we make an exchange and worship and serve idols substitutes for God created things rather than the Creator (Romans 1:18-25). When parents short-circuit to behavior they miss the opportunity to help their children understand that straying behavior reflects a heart that has strayed. Our kids always serve something, either God or a substitute for God some idol of the heart.