I listened again recently to a message I heard from Doug Phillips within the last couple of days about, “The History of the Sunday School Movement.”

I was reminded about how our children are our disciples whether we know it or not.  They are mini portraits of our lives.  You and I are always discipling.

This wasn’t expressly what the message was about, but it reminded me of how discipling involves how we live with our children, walk with them, talk with them, play with them, and work with them.  Discipling is the biblical form of education that involves daily living in close relationships with those whom you are discipling.

I then had to judge myself and ask whether I am discipling my children toward God, or toward myself.

I forget sometimes that what I’m working toward is the same thing that Jesus worked toward throughout His 3 years of ministry with His disciples.  In John 15:15, Jesus says to His disciples,

“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”

From Deuteronomy 6 to Acts 6, God’s method of education has not changed.  That’s our jobs as parents right?  To make known to our children what we have heard from God.

I look forward to the day when my kids are no longer my disciples, but are Christ’s disciples.  And I also look forward to the day when they will be my deepest friends, and not just my kids.

Even now, God is giving us glimpses of this in Arwen’s life.  We can sit and talk with her about some of life’s deepest issues, and I know that her heart belongs to me.  That’s the key to discipleship versus classroom based education.

She has my heart too.

(That’s my girl holding an axe after she helped me break up some old wood we needed to get rid of.)  She’s also sitting beside me proofreading this post right now.