Come Ye Children

Sometimes I read a book that convicts so hard.  Come Ye Children: A Book for Parents and Teachers on the Christian Training of Children by Charles Spurgeon has been one.

Quotes:
"I commend to you the study of instructive books, but above all I commend the study of Christ.  Let Him be your library.  Get near to Jesus.  An hour's communion with Jesus is the best preparation for teaching either the young or the old."  Kindle location 302
Yes!  What a difference are those days for me and my family when I start them in communion with Jesus, reading His Word, praying His Word, receiving from Him my directions for the day.  This is such a hard one for me - an issue where the spirit is willing but the flesh is so weak.  It means getting up early, before the kids.  And it's always, always worth it.  But yet so often, I choose a few extra minutes of sleep...

"It is a good deal to say of a child that he has "known the holy Scriptures."  You may say, "I have taught the children the Scriptures," but that they have known them is quite another thing...God blessing your efforts, dear friends, your children may know all of Scripture that is necessary to their salvation..." location 644

"Believe in the conversion of children, as children; believe that the Lord can call them by His grace, can renew their hearts, can give them a part and a lot among His people long before they reach the prime of life." location 837
This idea to believe in the conversion of children really convicted my unbelieving heart!  I so often doubt, when I hear a child is converted.  Could they really believe?  Really understand?  I even doubt my own children - are they simply parroting back to me what they know I want to hear? Throughout this book Spurgeon opens up the Scriptures, giving examples of children in the Bible who believed and obeyed the Lord.  I felt the need to repent of my unbelief, and to be truly encouraged that God can and does save children.

"Be sure, whatever you leave out, that you teach the children the three R's, - Ruin, Redemption, and Regeneration.  Tell the children they are ruined by the Fall, and that there is salvation for them only by being redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and regenerated by the Holy Spirit." location 925
In homeschooling books I read often of the importance of the three R's (Reading, wRiting, and 'Rithmetic!).  I like these new three R's - of eternal importance!

"If you never enter your closet and shut to the door, if you never plead at the mercy-seat for your child, how can you expect that God will honour you in its conversion?  It is a very excellent method, I think, actually to take the children one by one into your room alone and pray with them." location 1534
This is a practice I'd like to start.  I do pray for my children, but to take them aside, one by one, to pray for them could be very meaningful.