How can fathers best disciple their children according to the teachings of the Bible?

Paul Washer discusses the role of fathers in the spiritual upbringing of their children, based on Scriptural guidance found in Ephesians 6 and Deuteronomy 6. Washer emphasises that the ultimate goal of parental discipleship is not merely to raise ethical or moral children, but to raise children who love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. This love for God, Washer argues, should be modelled by the parents, particularly the father, in every aspect of their lives.

Washer suggests that the most powerful way a father can disciple his children is by being a living example of a person who loves God wholeheartedly. In fact, a father who may not be a great teacher but genuinely loves God can have a much greater impact on his children's spiritual growth than a father who is a great theologian but fails to live out his faith authentically. Washer further argues that teaching children about God should come naturally from the father's own relationship with God, rather than being a forced or artificial process.

Proverbs 22:6 (NKJV): "Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it."

There's not a lot directly in the scriptures with regard to that. We have Ephesians 6. We have also the famous passage in Deuteronomy. And I want to go there for just a moment. You know, chapter 6, he says, Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house and you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up." He goes on. But what we need to see here first of all, that there is a goal to the discipleship of parents. It is not just to raise moral children, or ethical children, or children you can be proud of, our professional dignified children, it's to raise children who love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength.

Now he tells Israel that this should be on your heart. So the greatest thing that a father can do for his children and discipleship is exemplify a person who loves the Lord his God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength. A father who's a poor teacher but loves the Lord his God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength. It's going to have a greater impact on his children than the guy who is a great theologian and yet when they look at their father they see a living contradiction. So the first thing is, well let me put it this way, the greatest thing I can do for my wife and the greatest thing I can do for my children is to be a better man, to be more like Christ.

And then from there we are to teach our children. And I think this is one of the greatest problems in the church is that, you know, we're trying to design all these ways to fix the problem. Maybe we should stop. Well, we definitely should stop with all our designing and just ask ourselves, what do you