Parenting According to Jesus

The first two Sundays in January at BCC we have taken life lessons from John 15 where Jesus speaks of Himself as the "Vine" (v.) and His disciples as the "branches" (v.5). With that metaphor in mind many meaningful lessons can be developed regarding what it really means to live for Jesus, or build life around Jesus as we have coined it.

Lessons like,

• 'Branches do not live on their own'
• 'Fruitful branches get pruned and become even more fruitful'
• 'Unfruitful branches get X-ed'
• 'Fruitful branches bring honor to the Gardener'
• 'Branches remain alive only as they remain attached to the Vine and fill themselves with the same substance as the Vine'

Many more lessons can be developed as well. But as I took a prayer walk last Thursday night one very important lesson occurred to me that I believe has a great application for parenting today.

While praying I walked past tree after tree thinking about Jesus' vine-branch metaphor trying to take in both the simplicity and profundity of the concept. At one point during my walk the simplicity of the metaphor stopped me in my tracks and I stood there gazing at one branch on one tree as the crisp winter air chilled my face. As I stood there I remembered that Jesus said this, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abides in (remains in, NIV) Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit..." (John 15:5).

Listen to the simplicity of this verse: Jesus says,
'If you are a branch and you remain attached to Me, You will bear fruit.'
'Also, if you are a branch and do not remain attached to Me, You will not bear fruit.'
And by implication He also says, 'If you are a branch and are attached to the vine and are still dying and not bearing fruit, then you are probably attached to the wrong vine'.

The parental application I took from this passage was so freeing to me that night. It was like the deepest lesson on faith development had been right there in front of me on a thousand different trees every day, and I was not aware of it. That night I learned that as a Christian-branch it is my primary responsibility to remain attached to the vine of Jesus at all times. It is not my responsibility to worry about the fruit that comes from my branches, when it might sprout, what it might look like or how it might compare to other branches around me. I must only worry about remaining attached to the vine of Jesus myself. And as I, day by day, fasten myself to Jesus the long-term result (as fruit is often slow-growing) will be new faith in my children. The faith of my children, Jesus says, will sprout from my deep and intentional attachment to Jesus.

I have met a number of individuals in my past who went about choosing a church based on the size of the youth group, the contemporariness of the worship, the youthfulness of the congregation or the charisma of the preacher. These are the things they truly believed would help sprout faith in their children long-term. Notice that each of the aforementioned things are completely outside of the person of the parent. When I hear things like this from parents it is sort of the equivalent of them saying, "I know the leaves in my front yard are lying on the ground and the branch they were attached to is lying on the ground as well, but I think if I just add more sun, water and soil to the leaves they will grow again."

Well I don't care how much sun, water or soil you add to a detached leaf, it will never grow! What that leaf really needs is a healthy attachment to a branch (a parent) who is strongly attached to a Vine (Jesus). That, says Jesus, is what produces fruit.

The promise of John 15:5 is quite remarkable too: "If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit" (NIV).

Parents, if we desire that our children build their lives around Jesus then the number one thing we can do, and the only thing we really have the power to do, is remain strongly attached to the vine of Jesus ourselves. The fruit, Jesus says, is up to God. That is such a relief!

Keep building!