I remember holding my son Nate after he was born. My first thought was, "He's so light—I hope I don't drop him." Then he started to seem heavier and heavier, as the weight of responsibility for his life came upon me. And I thought, "Wow! We must devote these coming years to training this child and making sure that what he sees and hears at home are the principles of Scripture."

It seems that Jacob felt that same responsibility when he said to his household, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments" (Genesis 35:2). It seems that idolatry had been tolerated in this family for a long time (see Genesis 31:26-35).

Someone once said, "A parent is simply a partner with God in discipling children." God wants to disciple and nurture our children, and He uses us to do it. It doesn't mean we'll be perfect parents—no one is. But when we make mistakes, it's sometimes as simple as saying, "Son, daddy made a mistake, would you forgive him?"

Of all the tasks we have, the most important is parenting. In our culture, about 16 percent of a child's time will be spent at school, 1 percent at church activities, and 83 percent at home. If you're not passionately following the Lord to set an example for your children at home, it's unrealistic to say, "I can't understand what happened to my kids, I took them to Sunday school."

Parents, you have the calling and responsibility to admonish your children. Paul said, "Bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4). It's your responsibility to say, "This is right; that's not right."

I've heard one verse more than any other concerning children: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6). The Hebrew word for train is hanak, meaning to stimulate one's taste. To "train up" means far more than just giving them information—it's to live in a way that stimulates their taste for godliness and righteousness.

Abraham Lincoln had it right when he said, "If a parent wants his child to be trained in the way that he should go, he should walk in that way himself."

For many people, religion is to worship idols six days a week and worship God one day a week. Then they wonder why their Sunday worship is lacking and their heart is so divided.

In 1 John 5:21, we're told: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." Anything that acts as a replacement for God or takes the place of worshiping God is an idol. We need to ask ourselves: Are we tolerating anything that's taking the place of my devotion to God?

As parents, the next question we should ask is: Am I stimulating my children to love and follow God by always displaying my devotion to do the same?

Only you can answer those questions.