http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/six-ways-parents-of-rebellious-children-fight-for-faith
Excerpt from the Audio Transcript:
Keli, a mom, writes in to ask: “Pastor John, I’m wondering if you would speak on the subject of dealing with rebellious children. How do you keep trusting God when you see no evidence of his working in a child’s life?”
Well, this is exactly the right question to ask, Keli. How do we keep on trusting God? The crucial need for every parent is to trust God: to trust God that he has work for us in Jesus to save us from our sins, to trust God that he will fulfill all of his promises to his children, to trust God that he will uphold us. “Fear not, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed. For I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you” (Isaiah 41:10). That he will keep that promise, to trust God that he will withhold no good thing from those who walk uprightly (Psalm 84:11), to trust God that he will give us only what is good for us and that all his ways are just and wise.
What our children need from us most is to see joyful, hopeful, peaceful, obedient, trusting God, resting in God. And the biblical answer to the question — How do we keep trusting God in this and every situation? — is surely given probably most clearly in Romans 10:17: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” And I think that means not just that you get converted and get faith the first time by hearing Christ, but that you also get faith, strengthened every day by hearing. Faith comes daily by hearing. Right now in this podcast faith doesn’t come from John Piper. Faith comes from John Piper’s reading the Bible and applying the Bible. Or it doesn’t come at all.
So let me give a few texts that would, I hope, strengthen our faith in respect to our children:
First, it helps parents, I think, to realize — strange as it may sound — that God’s own children rebel against him.
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