“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” — 3 John 4
In 2022, I baptized Daniel. In 2024, Samuel. In 2025, Emmanuelle. And just over a week ago, in 2026, I had the immense joy of baptizing my two youngest daughters, Gabrielle and Rachel.
All five of my children have now professed faith in Christ publicly. I cannot be happier. I understand, in a small but very personal way, what the Apostle John meant. There is no greater joy.
But I want to be honest with you: this has been far from a smooth journey. Baptism days are mountaintop moments, but the valleys in between were long, and some of them are not even behind us. So rather than simply celebrate, I want to share five realities I have learned, and am still learning, about raising five children in the Lord.
1. It Is a Divine Work
No amount of “good” parenting, no warm and comfortable home, no measure of care and love can transform a child’s heart. That is theology.
If there is one thing you learn quickly as a parent, it is that you cannot do this in your own strength. We parents are still wrestling with our own sin. Dealing with the sinfulness of a toddler, or later a teenager, is far beyond our natural capacity to fix. Only God can awaken a heart to see His beauty on the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:5–6).
👉🏽 Only He can make a child see, fear, obey, and love Him by transforming the heart itself.
We plant. We water. God gives the growth. Always.
2. It Is a Dependent Work
Parenting teaches continuous dependence, because the journey is far from over when a child professes Christ; it has only begun. The trials and temptations surrounding our kids are many. The influence of friends, social media, movies, and online personalities is enormous, and it often competes directly with parental authority and biblical instruction.
So we pray, and we keep praying, asking the Lord to protect our children and keep them on the narrow path (Job 1:5; Proverbs 1:8–16).
👉🏽 God continues to make them see, fear, obey, and love Him progressively, over years, not overnight.
3. It Is a Deliberate Work
In His amazing plan, God chose imperfect, broken, dependent vessels to be the primary instruments of theological education for our children: us, the parents. Discipleship starts within the home, not in a classroom or a Sunday program.
We have to be intentional and unwavering in both the didactic and the disciplinary sides of childrearing (Ephesians 6:4; Proverbs 22:6; Deuteronomy 6:5–7). This is not passive. It is deliberate, daily, and often unglamorous work.
👉🏽 And God, in His kindness, uses parents who themselves see, fear, obey, and love Him to shape children who do the same.
4. It Is a Difficult Work
Because it is dependent and deliberate, it is also difficult. Children continue to sin and stumble after they are saved, just as we do. No matter how many times they fail, or we fail, we have to keep bringing them back to the Word, showing them the way, proclaiming and portraying the gospel to them again and again. That is hard, because we are fighting against our own flesh and theirs at the same time (2 Corinthians 10:3–6).
It is also difficult because, in God’s sovereign design, there are lessons only trials can teach. We do not like them. But we need them, and so do our children.
👉🏽 God prunes them, and He prunes us to see, fear, obey, and love Him through the very trials we would remove if we could.
5. It Is a Delightful Work
And yet — what a joy it is to watch Christ being formed in them (Galatians 4:19). What a joy to see their desires and their demeanor slowly change. What a delight to help build spiritual muscle in a son or daughter, training them to stand as soldiers in the Lord’s army.
That is the unique privilege of a parent.
👉🏽 God makes our children see, fear, obey, and love Him by letting them taste, in real time, the blessedness, peace, and joy that walking with the Lord produces in their own lives and in our home.
🖐🏽 A Word for Parents of Prodigals
I want to close with something for the Christian parents reading this whose sons or daughters are not walking in the truth right now, but instead who are, in fact, walking away from it.
I know it is hard. It is hard to watch a child you love persist on a path toward destruction. But you must keep being faithful to the one task that is actually yours: pointing them, again and again, to Christ and to His Word. That is all we can do as parents. And that is all we must do.🙏🏽
The rest: the awakening, the transforming, the bringing home; it all belong to God’s sovereign grace. Not to your performance as a parent. Not to your best efforts or your worst failures. Keep being faithful. Leave the rest with Him.👊🏽🙏🏽
Madagascar 3M 