Training Children: Parental Conduct

“Take care, then, what you do before a child. It is a true proverb, ‘Who sins before a child, sins double.’ Strive rather to be a living epistle of Christ, such as your families can read, and that plainly too. Be an example of reverence for the Word of God, reverence I prayer, reverence for means of grace, reverence for the Lord’s Day (J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents, p. 48).”

Training Children: Parental Conduct, Again

“Children are very quick observers; very quick in seeing through some kinds of hypocrisy, very quick in finding out what you really think and feel, very quick in adopting all your ways and opinions. You will often find as the father is, so is the son (J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents, p. 49).”

Training Children: Children of God

“Reader, be not wiser than God;--train your children as He trains His (J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents, p. 47).”

Training Children: Against Over-Indulgence

“Fathers and mothers, I tell you plainly, if you never punish your children when they are in fault, you are doing them a grievous wrong (J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents, p. 40).”

Training Children: Preparing Children for Dominion Work

“It is essential for our children to learn a variety of skills. If the parent is unable to advance such skills, they must seek and pay for godly influencers who are masters in their occupation (J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents, p. 36).”

Training Children: Obedience, Again

“To my eyes, a parent always yielding, and a child always having its own way, are a most painful sight;--painful because I see God’s appointed order of things inverted and turned upside down;--painful, because I feel sure the consequence to that child’s character in the end will be self-will, pride, and self-conceit. You must not wonder that men refuse to obey their Father which is in heaven, if you allow them, when children, to disobey their father who is upon earth (J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents, p. 33).”

Training Children: Obedience

“Obedience is the only reality. . . . It ought to be the mark of well-trained children, that they do whatsoever their parents command them (J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents, p. 31).”

Training Children: Trusting Parents

“Tell your children, too, that we must all be learners in our beginnings,--that there is an alphabet to be mastered in every kind of knowledge,--that the best horse in the world had need once to be broken,--that a day will come when they will see the wisdom of all your training. But in the meantime if you say a thing is right, it must be enough for them,--they must believe you, and be content (J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents, p. 30).”

Training Children: The Lord’s Service

“Tell them the duty and privilege of going to the house of God, and joining in the prayers of the congregation (J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents, p. 24).”

Table Fellowship: Prayer for Wine

Our Father in Heaven,
Today we draw near to You with praise because you have called us out the world, out of death, and out of enmity with Your Son, the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ. We come to You, Father, in Christ by faith, and we trust in Your mercy and we rejoice in Your salvation. Today, Lord, You have called us to this fellowship meal, and we thank-you for this wine, which represents the blood poured out from the crucified body of our Risen Lord. Together all of us sing: Glory be to the Father; Glory be to the Son, Jesus Christ: and Glory be to the Holy Ghost. We lift our hearts and voices up to You, our Triune Lord, because you have dealt bountifully with us. Amen.

Table Fellowship: Prayer for Bread

Our Father in Heaven,
We draw near to You at this Table today with praise because you have called us out of the world, out of death, and out of enmity with Your Son, the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ. Father, we sit down with You at this Fellowship Meal in Christ by faith, and we trust in Your mercy and rejoice in Your salvation. We thank You, Almighty Lord, for this bread, which has been broken in likeness of the crucified body of our Risen Lord. You alone have called us from the East and the West and the North and the South, and gathered here together we sing: Glory be to the Father; Glory be to the Son, Jesus Christ; and Glory be to the Holy Ghost. We lift our hearts and voices up to You, our Triune Lord, because you have dealt bountifully with us. Amen.

Training Children: Prayer

“Prayer is the simplest means that man can use in coming to God. It is within reach of all,--the sick, the aged, the infirm, the paralytic, the blind, the poor, the unlearned,--all can pray. It avails you nothing to plead want of memory, and want of learning, and want of books, and want of scholarship in this matter. So long as you have a tongue to tell your soul’s state, you may and ought to pray (J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents, p. 19).”

Training Children: Holy Scripture, Thrice

“See that they read it all (J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents, p. 18).”

Training Children: Holy Scripture

“Any system of training which does not make a knowledge of Scripture the first thing is unsafe and unsound (J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents, p. 17).”

Training Children: Holy Scripture, Again

"See that your children read the Bible regularly. Train them to regard it as their soul’s daily food, as a thing essential to their soul’s daily health. I know well you cannot make this anything more than a form; but there is no telling the amount of sin which a mere form may indirectly restrain (J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents, p. 18).”