Billy Graham Quotes - Page 27

Children, pray for the salvation of your parents.

It may shock some parents to learn that we don’t own our children. God has given them to us in trust . . . however, God may transfer our children to His home at any time.

I missed the joy of seeing our children grow and change. I thank God for watching over them during those years.

Our lives speak loudly to those around us, especially the children in our home.

One of life’s mysteries is why two children growing up in the same home sometimes take radically different paths—one following Christ, the other rebellious and scornful. Yet it happens.

God gave us our children so we could prepare them to become adults.

Ruth once wrote, “Dear Journal, Never let a single day pass without saying an encouraging word to each child . . .‘More people fail for lack of encouragement,’ someone wrote, ‘than for any other reason.

Children will learn far more by watching than by just listening.

One of the worst things we can do is allow our children to grow up thinking they don’t need to keep any rules. A spoiled child becomes a spoiled adult.

Love your children—and let them know you love them. Children who experience love find it far easier to believe God loves them.

If a child is to survive, he or she must know the rules of safety. If he is to be healthy, he must know the rules of health. If he is to drive a car, he must know the rules of the road. If he is to become a ball player, he must learn the rules of the game. And, contrary to popular thinking, children appreciate rules.

There is always the exceptional child, but the average tells us that the child is largely what the home has made him.

Children respect discipline. They want to be guided. It gives them a sense of belonging, a sense of security.

If our children grow up with no understanding of right and wrong . . .no desire to live with integrity . . . no faith in God . . .their souls will be impoverished and they will miss life’s highest good.

Children do need the guidance of their parents, and we guide them more by the example we set than by any other way. We need to be firm and sane and fair and consistent—and, above all, we need to discipline in a spirit of love.

The Bible warns [parents] against extremes in dealing with our adult children. It tells us to avoid trying to control [them] once they become adults. When children become independent, a major transition takes place: They are no longer under our authority.

By the 1960s the United States had a new ruling class—the teenager!

To injure, ignore, disrespect, and violate the innocence of a child are among the greatest evils known to man.

Truth is easier for a child to handle than evasiveness.

Before the seventeenth century, a child passed directly into the adult world between the ages of five and seven . . . then came the industrial revolution . . .so the child-centered home was born.

The television, iPod, and Internet have trespassed upon the innocence of America’s children, while preoccupied mothers and dispassionate fathers stare aghast wondering what went wrong. They don’t stop to think of their own contributions to the persuasions influencing their children. After all, where do kids as young as elementary age get money to rent rock videos and the latest rap DVDs?

Someday your children will leave; you can’t hold on to them or control them forever, nor should you.

[As a young man] I sought thrills! I found them in Christ. I looked for something that would bring perfect joy! I found it in Christ. I looked for something that would bring pleasure and that would satisfy the deepest longing of my heart! I found it in Christ. And my life has never been the same.

I have found in my travels that those who keep heaven in view remain serene and cheerful in the darkest day. Forward-looking Christians remain optimistic and joyful, knowing that Christ someday will rule.

This “I” was made in the image of God for fellowship with God. Without God it is miserable, empty, confused, and frustrated. Without God life has no meaning; but with God at its center there is life, an inner strength and peace, a deep satisfaction, an unfading joy known only to those who know Jesus Christ.

No matter what the climate is, what the troubles are, what the difficulties are, there is joy for the child of God, because joy is produced supernaturally by the Holy Spirit in us.

Without Him our daily routine would become tiresome and tedious, a drudgery rather than a joy.

Only the forward-looking Christian remains sincerely optimistic and joyful, knowing that Christ will win in the end.

Without dark clouds in our lives we would never know the joy of sunshine. We can become callous and unteachable if we do not learn from pain.

The ability to rejoice in any situation is a sign of spiritual maturity.

Pleasures are the things that appeal to our flesh and to our lust. But joy is something else. Joy runs deep.

We have to be tuned to God. We will never be free from discouragement and despondency until we know and walk with the very fountainhead of joy.

Repent means to renounce sin . . .and by God’s grace to fill my mind with things that honor Him.

What does repentance mean? It means to change—to change your mind, change the way that you’re living—and to determine that with God’s help you will live for Christ.

No subject is closer to my heart than the family . . . The moral foundation of our country is in danger of crumbling as families break up and parents neglect their responsibilities.

A Christian has tremendous responsibilities to his own family. He or she has a responsibility of loving each member of the family.

If people stumble, we help them get back on their feet; if they veer off course, we urge them back. On this journey we are all brothers and sisters in the same family—the family of God.

It is only the strong Christian family unit that can survive the coming world holocaust.

Rebellion, waywardness, lack of discipline, confusion, and conflict prevent happy relationships within the home. But God is interested in your family, your marriage, your children. He shows us the ideals and the goals for the family.

God knew that children grow and mature best in a stable, loving family, and this was one reason He gave marriage to us.

We have exchanged love of family and home for cyberfriends and living in constant motion that robs the soul from memories—and perhaps from that still, small voice that longs to be heard.

Not only does God give us a new relationship with Himself and make us citizens of His kingdom, but He also gives us a new family—the family of God.

The Bible says a great deal about entire families coming to Christ. Rahab the harlot . . . the Philippian jailer . . . and Cornelius, the Roman centurion. That could be true in your family too. You may be the one who could lead your family to Christ.

Amazing things can happen when the family of God bands together.

One result of family failure has been the loss of dignity. No better example can be found than in the use of language. [Language has been reduced to] a four-letter word in movies, on television, in comedy routines, and in real life.

When the family is destroyed, society eventually disintegrates.

More friction and tensions are caused in a family by tone of voice than for any other one reason.

Many times it takes just one member of a family to initiate the action to bring a family back together again.

There is something wrong when a brother or sister becomes alienated from the rest of their family, so there is something wrong when Christians refuse to have anything to do with their fellow Christians. God wants us to live this Christian life together.

Your own family circle knows whether Christ lives in you and through you.

We need to place God at the center of our family . . . As a family, we need to walk with God daily.

Understanding the consequence of sin and arrogance should motivate every Christian to pray for repentance and revival.

The Bible does not teach that sin is completely eradicated from the Christian in this life, but it does teach that sin shall no longer reign over you.

When the Christian or the church becomes popular with the unbelieving world, something is seriously wrong. Because Christ runs counter to evil and because we are Christ-owned, we must also stand against evil.

The end will come with the return of Jesus Christ . . .That is why a Christian can be an optimist. That is why a Christian can smile in the midst of all that is happening . . .We know what the end will be: the triumph of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Two conflicting forces cannot exist in one human heart. When doubt reigns, faith cannot abide. Where hatred rules, love is crowded out. Where selfishness rules, there love cannot dwell.

Man himself is helpless to detach himself from the gnawing guilt of a heart weighed down with the guilt of sin. But where man has failed, God has succeeded.

Don’t ever hesitate to take to [God] whatever is on your heart. He already knows it anyway, but He doesn’t want you to bear its pain or celebrate its joy alone.

It is possible through sin to harden our hearts against God so long that we lose all desire for God. The Scripture says: “God also gave them up” [Romans 1:24 KJV].

The heart symbolizes the center of our moral, spiritual, and intellectual life. It is the seat of our conscience and life.

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