Permission for Imperfect Family Discipleship

GK Chesterton said, “If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly.” What does that mean?

It means that whenever you start something new, you don’t start as an expert:

• If you have ever started to play a musical instrument, you probably didn’t begin as Mozart or Paul McCartney. 
• If you've tried to learn a foreign language, you probably didn’t jump in with novels or poetry. 
• If you'e started anything new—from ping pong to baking, crocheting to throwing a curveball—you didn’t start out as a pro. 

And that is okay! In fact, that is the way it is meant to be. Learning new things and growing in skills is a journey. Some journeys are optional—like learning to throw a curveball—and others are mandatory like being potty-trained or learning to read.

In the Bible, God gives parents a mandatory task.

• In Gen 18:19, God explains why He chose Abraham: For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord.
• In Deut 6, God commands parents to diligently teach their children to know, love, and follow Him.
• And in Eph 6, we see that fathers are tasked with the responsibility to train their children in the fear and instruction of God.
• And God didn’t leave out grandparents either. In Deut 4:9, we are commanded to be careful to teach our children AND our children’s children about what the Lord has done. That’s your verse, grand-people! You are so important in God’s discipleship plan.

The mandatory task is family discipleship. We are not commanded to be perfect parents, but committed ones. We might start by doing family discipleship badly, but we are still called to do it. And as we do it we will improve. And God will bless it.

Just get started.