This day, 12th of May, our church celebrates Parents’ Day! Allow me to suggest three Ps for parents seeking to provide spiritual leadership over their kids.

The first P is to be Proactive!
Laidback is the opposite of Leadership! Proactive leaders are not laid back! To be laidback is to be passive and that equates to absolving your leadership responsibilities! So as parents, we need to take initiative!  Just as Jesus took the initiative to seek and to save that which was lost, we need to take the initiative to do that which is beneficial for our household.

The second P is to be a Protector!
Our Lord Jesus is the Good Shepherd who protects His sheep with His own life and He sets the example for us to protect our families from all harm and all evil.

The third P is to be a Provider!
Just as Jesus supplies all our needs, parents also need to provide for the needs of the family. Now these 3 Ps can be applied to non-Christian households as well, but for this article, we want to specifically zoom in on taking spiritual leadership. When parents prioritise the spiritual needs of their families, all 3 Ps come into play very nicely.

As parents, we need to be Proactive in initiating spiritual conversations, initiate prayer, initiate family devotion time with our kids. When you are Proactive in initiating these spiritual disciplines, you are acting as a Provider, providing your household with spiritual food and nourishment! And in providing them with spiritual food and nourishment, you are also acting as a Protector, protecting your family from the temptation of the devil and the lure of worldliness.

So as the spiritual leaders of your household, you need to be proactive to provide and protect your household spiritually. And yes, doing so will involve sacrifice. There is a price to pay. We need to invest time and effort into it. For a lot of us, taking up spiritual leadership means getting out of our comfort zone. So yes, taking up leadership in the family is going to cost us, but that is exactly how Jesus loved the church – He loved her sacrificially, and He willingly paid the price in full. So let us look to Jesus and soldier on in our parenting duties. His mercies are new every morning!

Psalm 78:5-7
5  He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children,
6  that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children,
7  so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;