Well, good evening. It's so good to be with you and appreciate the invitation to get to speak to you. And what a great topic for us as we consider the family. And that last message was just so solid. I told Pastor John that I just had a question from a young married man. whose wife was asking him some questions about what does submission really mean. And so now I can just say, hey, you guys should listen to this message. And I'll point them right to the one that we just heard. And I know that will be a help to them as it was to me. And it's just a great blessing to be here with this partner church here in the Edmonton area. And it's so great as Middlelands Baptist Church for us to partner with you over the years in various ways and to enjoy fellowship with your pastors as we get together for various fellowships. And so it's a great fellowship that we have. Together, I know dozens of times I've had people visit Meadowlands, and I'll ask them now, where do you live? And they said, yeah, we're looking for a church. And if they say Beaumont or Leduc or wherever, I said, well, we'd love to have you back at Meadowlands. But if you're looking for a church, there's one a lot closer to you, and you should visit. And so that's a blessing to be able to have, and have good, solid Bible-preaching churches in this metropolitan area, and we could use a lot more. And we pray that the Lord will continue to do that. Now, I promise that I will get you out so you can get home by 8 if you're going to watch the Oilers game. But actually, I bring that up really for more of my introduction because a while back in the playoffs, we were watching a game with some friends. I'm more of a Oilers playoff fan. So which really has meant I've watched a lot of hockey matches in recent years, which has really been fun. So I kind of am looking forward to the playoffs, hoping they make it, and then follow them and jump on the bandwagon. And it's been a good time to jump on the bandwagon for the Oilers living in Edmonton. But we were with some folks and as we were watching the game and somehow we got talking about, how much do NHL players get paid? So we were talking a little bit about that. Of course, it's more than probably at least half of us here get paid. I looked at this season, I think the average is $3.5 million for a salary. So that's more than a lot of us probably. And so, but as we were talking about that, then we got talking about how often these professional athletes, they're making all this money, but then a few years later, they squander that money and they, They don't have it in the future. And so I looked up, actually, the statistics for this. 60% of NHL players are broke within five years of retirement. It's a similar number for those basketball players in the NBA. The NFL football is worse. 78% face bankruptcy or financial crisis within two years of retirement. And so when it comes to professional athletes, it seems that they are highly skilled in their sport, but not so skilled in financial management. They fail to invest wisely their current salaries so that they have an abundance of finances in the future. And as we think about that, very few of us probably have millions to invest. However, we do each have investments. We are stewards of what God has entrusted to us. Time. Treasure. It may not be millions, but we do have finances. The different talents that the Lord has entrusted to us. And when it comes to the family, parents, And even grandparents have a stewardship, an opportunity to invest what God has entrusted. And even if you are not a parent with your own biological children, Throughout the New Testament, we have the Apostle Paul even saying his ministry of discipleship to others is like a father. He mentions many times, I think once, I think it's in 1 Thessalonians, even he uses a mother as even an example of the way that he ministered to others. And so as we consider this calling of investing, especially as parents, the opportunity to invest, we want to be wise investors. Now I have a handout for each of you. And if you don't have that, would you just lift your hand and we'll make sure that we get not a financial handout, just something that you can take notes on if you would like. But right on the front there is a scripture, Ephesians 5. So if you closed your Bible, you can open it right back up to where you were during the last session, Ephesians 5. But we're gonna go to the section right before the husband and wife and that picture of marriage and Christ and the church. The Apostle Paul says this, There's an admonition to live in a certain way. And there's two ways you can live, wisely or foolishly. And according to Paul in this passage, it has a lot to do with the way we use our time. He says, make the best use of time because he says the days are evil. As we heard in the last session, God made everything good, but we live on the other side of Genesis 3 and the fall. And time itself is subject to futility. The earth itself has been cursed. And so, like with possessions, Jesus tells us that the things that we own aren't necessarily wrong, but what are they going to do? They're going to corrupt. They're going to decay. Someone's going to break in and steal them. They will not last. But what does Jesus say? You can, though, even with your life, you can invest in treasures in heaven. And even with your possessions and your time and your talents, you can invest them in a way that will last for all eternity. And Paul is saying this is what we can do with our time. We can redeem that time from the futile evil days that we live in. And so we want to know how we can do that. Well, what does Paul say here? What is a wise way to make the best use of our time, to redeem the time, to make the use of these days that we live in? Well, he says, therefore, in verse 17, therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. So the creator of time and space has a will for us. And when we understand His will for our lives, even in this fallen world, even in this season of time, it can be redeemed and used for the glory of God and for the good of eternity. And so within that context, he then continues on. I don't have this on your sheet, so you have to keep reading in your Bible. Verse 18, he continues this thought, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. So if you think about drunkenness, drunkenness is a reckless way of walking. He has just said, walk carefully. And I recently saw this somewhere where we were driving recently, but there was actually a man pulled over and the man was outside and it looked like he was taking some type of sobriety test, right? Because you don't walk carefully when you're drunk. And so there's a contrast here. Walk carefully. Or, of course, living in drunkenness is also a wasteful use of your time. You're not going to accomplish a whole lot drunk. But how can this time be redeemed wisely? by being filled, the opposite of that is being filled with the Spirit. The Spirit who indwells us can control us as we yield to the Spirit, as we yield to God's working in our life, as we understand what the will of the Lord is, and then rely on the Holy Spirit to empower us to obey that will. And then Paul goes on to give some of the results of being filled with the Spirit, of walking in this wise way. Verse 19, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always and for everything to God, for the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. And so when the Holy Spirit is in control of our lives, there will be visible results. What Paul does next is he makes some more narrow application of the result in the family. And that's really what the rest of this chapter and going on to the next chapter is all about. As we saw in the first session, God's will, God has a plan to make the best use of our time in marital life. God has a will for that. We can redeem our marriage, by following this. But he goes on to talk about other roles within the family. So we go into chapter six and verse one, two, and three are about children obeying and honoring their parents. And then we get to verse four. And that's what we're going to zoom in on this evening as we think about being wise parents. about redeeming the season of life. What is the will of the Lord? Well, in order to be wise, to walk in wisdom, we need to understand what the will of the Lord is. And here we have, in one verse, packed into it, the will of the Lord for parents. You have that on your sheet there if you want to read it from there or from your copy of the Bible. Fathers. And this can refer to mothers and fathers, and the instruction certainly applies to any parent. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. In this one verse, we discover what the will of the Lord is for parents, how they can invest wisely and make the best use of their limited days with children in their home. And so we want to look at these instructions. And what it really boils down to is there's a negative command to parents and a positive command. And that's what we're going to look at. Notice that first page on your left as you open up the handout. Do not provoke your children to anger. Now there's a big danger in anger in anyone. We read this earlier in this letter in chapter four, where Paul instructs, do not let the sun go down on your anger, nor give place to the devil. Someone who is angry is giving an opening, is vulnerable to the devil, our enemy, who's like a roaring lion, who wants to devour us. Anger in a child. will make that child vulnerable. And Paul is warning that parents could be the cause of their children being in this vulnerable state. Do not provoke your children to anger. So I'm gonna give you, this is just a practical application here, 10 attitudes and actions to avoid. I asked my wife and kids to give me some input. And so some of these are from them. And so you can, these aren't all from scripture, so this is just my application. So you can put these down if you'd like. The first one I'm gonna put is anger. You can provoke your children to anger by being angry. by responding in anger. Proverbs 22, 24, and 25 says, make no friendship with an angry man. And with a furious man do not go, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare." Proverbs says, don't be a close companion with someone who is angry, lest you learn to be like them. But think about children. They don't really have a choice about their parents. They're stuck with them. And if they have an angry mother or father, that is sure to influence them. I was a youth pastor for several years and also a coach of high school basketball players. And so I would notice sometimes teens that would struggle with anger. But as I got to work with them and their families, sometimes I saw the apple didn't fall far from the tree. And they were learning. Their parents were discipling them. Do you realize that? We are discipling our children one way or another. And we certainly do not want to disciple them, to shepherd them into having an angry spirit. That they learn, oh, this is how we respond when things don't go our way. Just a few hours ago, my wife and I were at a memorial service. Some of you may even know the gentleman, Walter Epp, died at the age of 96. but his daughter gave a eulogy and she told this story about, it had to have been about 50 years ago, but she told a story of how she got, she was a new driver and she got it in a parking lot and she was trying to straighten it out and she just kept getting closer to this car And when she finally, and actually I think a police car came by and the police officer helped get the car out, but she had drug the car across the end of the bumper and had scraped it up. And so she brought it home and she was prepared for her dad to give her a lecture of irresponsibility and to be angry. And she said when she showed her dad the new design of the car that he put his arm around her and said, You know, I forget what he said exactly, but you know, it's okay. You're learning. I'm glad that you're okay. And isn't that interesting? If he would have responded in anger, I doubt she would have shared that story 50 years ago. But when she had an opportunity to give up, you know, a five or six minute eulogy, that came to her mind. A dad that didn't get angry when he probably naturally would have. But see, her dad had the Holy Spirit and responded in a godly way. And that made an impression. Probably she's thought of that hundreds of times and even chose to tell that story today. So anger. And you know, parents, we're gonna get angry, aren't we? So we can... Ask our kids to forgive us and repent to the Lord of that and move forward and ask the Lord for help. Here's a second one, apathy. If anger is uncontrolled emotions and passion, I guess apathy is just the lack of passion. or maybe just passion for other things, maybe your own hobby or your job, but the neglect of your children. And children come to resent not being cared for or not having an attentive parents in their lives. And so apathy could provoke to anger. Here's a third one, inconsistency. Children are learning priorities and values, and yet if we keep changing what's important, how are they learning? How are they developing a pattern? What do we do when we discipline them? Is there consistency, or is it wildly one way or another, depending on our mood? But consistency. Again, this is something we can always improve on. My dad used to say something like, This year, I'm trying to be less inconsistent than I was last year. We're always growing in that. We're never perfectly consistent. But this is something that when we are inconsistent, we are giving an avenue who for our children to be angry. Number four is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is pretending, is acting differently in different places. And the problem with that is our children get to see us in all these different places, right? If we're one way at church, and a very opposite way at home, your children are the ones that observe that. And I think this is one of the main reasons for just a bitterness and anger because they see, oh, You know, is my dad a fake? Does my mom really have faith in the Lord? Boy, they can turn it on and turn it off. And that hypocrisy, of course, Jesus rebuked the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, who actually appeared righteous in public. and yet their hearts were corrupt. And so hypocrisy can do that. Do as I say, not as I do is not a good parenting strategy. And so we need to be in our own integrity the same where we are. That doesn't mean we're bad the same everywhere, but that the Lord is working in our lives and that our homes, our children can actually see what the Lord is doing in our lives. Fifth is favoritism. We see this in the book of Genesis where Jacob favored a couple of his sons over others. And what happened? There was jealousy and hatred and it was quite a dysfunctional family. And I believe that Jacob bore a big part of the blame because of the way he showed favoritism. And you know, we have four children, and if you have multiple children, At different stages, some children may be easier to instruct than others. And maybe it's natural even to favor one or to be much harder on another. But things like that can really cause even jealousy between siblings and cause anger within the family. And so we need to definitely guard ourselves against that. Number six, hurtful words. Can those ever be heard in your home? Ephesians 4.29, if you're in, still in Ephesians 6 or 5, you can look over at Ephesians 4.29 where it says, let no corrupt talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. We can discipline our children and still the words build up. That doesn't mean they're always nice. but that they're beneficial, right? That they are encouraging in the right direction. And notice he says, they give grace. We've received grace, haven't we, from God? We need to give grace in our homes. In fact, if you keep reading, you find out that the words we say isn't just about us and our family members, but it actually has to do with our relationship with God. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. And then it goes on to say, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. That's the gospel. God in Christ forgave you. And you as a parent can model that by forgiving your spouse, by forgiving your children, by having an environment of grace in your family. Number seven, public humiliation. Now, parents may unintentionally embarrass their children by being out of style or out of touch or whatever, right? We're not talking about that. I'm sure I embarrass my children quite often, but I'm not trying to. It's just the way I am. But what we're talking about is when we shame them, when we discipline them in public or say something demeaning to them, maybe in front of their friends or in front of others, boy, that hurts deeply. Even in Jesus himself in Matthew 18 talks about when someone offends you, what do you do first? You go privately to them. We should at least do that with our own children. And there may be times where we have to, you know, prevent something from going on and we don't have time, you know, to take our toddler privately. You know, they're about ready to run in traffic. Maybe we do need to, you know, shout or do something or driving lessons. I've done a little bit of that. You know, sometimes you just got to scream so you don't hit a car, you know. But that's for their good, right? That's safety for everyone. But public humiliation, and we can do that, and that can hurt deeply. And so we should be very careful about doing that. Number eight, this is something that my kids shared, that they said that they've observed this in some of their classmates at school. Pressure to perform. Pressure to perform. Where there's a lot of pressure Maybe to relive the glory days through your children so that they can be the athlete that you were or that you wished you were or that you favorably remember that you were. Or maybe it's in music or art or academics or whatever. And I think there's a balance here, and sometimes we really need wisdom to know when to push. That's good, right? Our children need... It's like a coach. A coach has to push its players to succeed. And yet, there can be this pressure to perform as if your love is dependent on that. That will cause resentment and anger within the family. Ask yourself, why are you pushing your children? Is it so that it makes you look good? Or are you actually doing this for their own good? Number nine, rules without reasons. Now, when the children are very young, sometimes it's just no, hot, you know. Sometimes it's just preventing children from hurting themselves. But there comes a time early on where you can start reasoning with your children. And when they get to be teenagers especially, they have reasons for the rules that you have. And what you're doing is you're trying to train your children to reason on their own. because you're not going to be directing their lives in a few years. And so if you can bring them into the conversation and develop discernment into making decisions, you may have to veto some of those if there's going to be real harm, but working together, but rules they don't understand, that they think are overly harsh and you don't give any reason because I said so, is not really discipling them in developing them, in building trust and really respecting them. And so rules without reason can be something that would bring anger. And then as you discuss with them, listen to them. What do they think? and hopefully explain well to them, even if you don't agree. You're still the parent, so you still have to have rules and establish standards for your family, but you want them to embrace God's principles concerning them. And then number 10, pride. Proverbs 13, 10, only by pride comes strife. My selfish pride will cause strife in my family, will cause anger in my children. In Paul's letter to the Colossians, he gives the same negative command, but he says it this way, do not provoke your children to anger, and then he gives the result, lest they be discouraged. And so when we provoke our children to anger, that deflates them, that discourages them, that really harms them. And as parents, we are in the place that God has put us to do the most good to our children. We are also in a place that could do the most harm as well by the things that we do or say or don't do or don't say. Now, the very opposite of many of these, if you just want to look across the page in your Bible to Ephesians 4, and he's instructing the church on unity, but just think if we lived according to these attitudes in our home. Chapter 4, verse 1, I therefore, prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, listen to this, with all humility, gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Instead of provoking to anger, we can promote unity. and a home where these are regular attitudes is going to be a home. That doesn't mean our kids won't ever get angry, but we at least aren't the ones provoking them. We live in a time where the days are evil, and yet the Christian home can be a refuge from those evil days by living a life controlled by the Holy Spirit walking carefully as we understand the will of the Lord. So we've seen some don'ts. Now let's move on to some do's. How do we then invest wisely in our children? How do we redeem this season of life? So we go back to Ephesians 6 and verse 4. And the positive command we have here is to bring them up in discipline and instruction of the Lord. And here we have three key words that describe wise parenting. The first is bring, here, I'll give you the blanks in a minute, so you can just listen. I know sometimes you're trying to figure out, so I'll just tell you, and if I forget to tell you, just raise your hand. But let's just look at these words here, and then I'll give you the one, two, and three here. The first word, though, is bring them up. It's actually just one Greek word. And it's only one other time in the New Testament, and we actually looked at it in the last session. It's actually chapter five and verse 29, where it's talking about the husband is to love his wife as he loves himself. And it says, no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes, that's the word, but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church. That's the word, bring them up. nourish them, and that's kind of the idea here, really, to nourish, to provide the right environment to thrive. So think about a seed. Let's say you have a seed. Maybe for Christmas, someone gave you some seeds for Christmas. garden plants. You can tell I'm a gardener. Like, for tomatoes or something. And if I get some of these things wrong, the general principle applies, okay? Well, let's say you get these seeds and you think, oh, I'd like to start that now. Now, if you go out in your yard and try to plant that seed in this harsh frozen ground, forget about it, right? But let's say you think, oh, you know, I could do it inside maybe and by a window and there's light and soil and kind of, kind of start this seedling and the seed to germinate. Maybe you look up online or ask chat GPT what you're supposed to do with it and then it says oh this is what you do and you you have this environment and then and the seed sprouts and and and then maybe If it's at the right time and the weather turns warm, it's coming. You know, it's just a little bit lighter every day. And that warm weather comes, and let's say it's summer, and you transport that protected little plant into your garden. And then you continue to give it an environment. Make sure there aren't weeds. Make sure there's enough water. And you are providing the right environment for that plant to grow and produce fruit. That's the idea here of nourish, of nurturing. Now, can a gardener make a plant grow? Not really. He can't make it grow. He can simply provide the environment so that it will grow. Can the gardener produce fruit? Well, not really. But he's not passive either. He's active doing all he can for the environment. And that's what parents are doing. Parents are providing an environment for their children to thrive, to grow, to bear fruit. Now what kind of fruit then are parents wanting to produce? What type of environment are we providing? Do we want children that will be well-educated, or be successful in business? Is that our goal? Are we trying to plan the right environment so that they'll have athletic achievements, or music accomplishments, or on and on we could go? I mean, a lot of unbelieving parents would agree with that. Yeah, you should have the right environment, and this is our goal. But if you have the wrong goal, you're nurturing for the wrong thing. Well, what is the golden? Well, we can look at our text here. Bring them up in the discipline and instruction, and don't miss that last part, of the Lord. If I had it on a screen and we just took off the of the Lord part, like John did in the last session, it would change things, right? Bring them up in discipline and instruction. But if it's not in the Lord, what is that? Do we just determine that for ourselves? No, not at all. So that's number one. Nurture, we'll put it this way in the blank. Nurture your children to love the Lord. We're providing an environment. We can't make our children love the Lord, but we can provide an environment that will nurture them to love the Lord. If we go to Deuteronomy 6, these words, I command you today, they shall be in your heart. Listen to this. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. This is Deuteronomy 6, verses six and seven. So there is this intentionality of instructing your children every day, but toward what end? What's actually the verse right before that I missed. shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." So the parent loves God wholeheartedly and then every day is providing an environment directing the attention of their children. So that they, by God's grace, will wholeheartedly love God. So that's what it means to nurture them in the instruction and discipline of the Lord. And then those other two words, so the first word is that, is bring them up, or nurture. Then there's these other two words, discipline and instruction. And the two words are somewhat synonymous. There's a lot of overlap in meaning. The first one probably focuses more on training, and the second one more on warning, at least in the way that they're used in scripture. What I find interesting is this word translated discipline, occurs only five other times in the New Testament, and that word translated instruction occurs only two other times. But what's interesting is Paul, who wrote this, uses both of these words to describe the influence of Scripture on people. And so I think it'll be helpful if Paul is saying scripture influences people this way with these words, then I think as Christian parents, let's look at how scripture influences us so that we can understand, well, if we're to do this, this is how we should be influencing our children. So the first of those two scriptures is 2 Timothy 3. So if you'd like to turn there, very familiar probably to many of you, but 2 Timothy 3, The word occurs in verse 17. But verse 16, to begin with, All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for, there's the word, training in righteousness. Same word translate discipline here. Training in righteousness. So what does God's word does? It tells us what's right, it's teaching, it tells us when we're wrong, reproof, and then it helps us to correct what's wrong, and then training in righteousness. It provides a path, a pattern for us to continue in the way of the Lord. And what is the goal? Verse 17, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. So the goal is that God's word trains us and equips us to every good work. So that's number two. Train your children to serve the Lord. That's what God's Word does. And as parents, that's what we do. We take God's Word and we train them for every good work. We train them. In fact, if you look just right, if you're in 2 Timothy, if you look right before, we actually have an example of this by parents. Timothy's own mother and grandmother. Verse 14, for as you know, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you have learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. So Timothy was nurtured And we learn, I think it's earlier in this book, or it's in 1 Timothy, where it was his mother and grandmother, they nurtured him in the gospel and through the teaching of the scriptures to give him the gospel that he was saved, that he was made wise unto salvation. And so that's what we're doing. Can you save your children? Can you make your children love God? Only God can do that. We pray and we just seek to be an environment and an instrument in God's hands. So train your children to serve the Lord. Read the scriptures to your children. Provide opportunity whenever you do. I'm preaching to the choir here, aren't I? You're here on a Saturday night. You have your children and those opportunities that the church provides to have them to sit under God's word and then to do that yourself at home. That's what training your children to serve the Lord is about. And then let's go to one final passage before we conclude, and it is 1 Corinthians 10. So we're looking at this next word, and in 1 Corinthians 10, we see where Paul uses the same word to describe the influence of Scripture on our lives. He is instructing the Corinthian church, giving an illustration of Israel in the wilderness after they had been rescued from Egypt. And 1 Corinthians 10, look at verse 5. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Verse 6. Now these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were. As it is written, the prophets sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. We must not indulge in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and 23,000 fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example. But they were written, they were written down in Scripture for our, and there's the word, instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed, lest he fall. So the way Paul uses this word instruction is the idea of warning. And so that's gonna be our third point. Warn your children to obey the Lord. Warn your children. We need to warn our children from God's word not to stray away from him. We need to remind our children of the dangers of sin. Sin for our children is not doing something that mom and dad don't like. Rather, sin is an offense to a holy God. There's a danger in sinning, and we warn them about that. In the Bible, we read about a father who had several sons. One of those sons assaulted his half-sister. In retaliation, another brother murdered that brother. And that murdering son led a rebellion against his father and then was violently killed. A third son later waged another rebellion against a father and another brother. Who was the father of this dysfunctional family? A little Bible trivia here. Who was that father? You can say it out loud if you know it. David, the greatest king of Israel. In 1 Kings 1, 6, we read about one of David's sons, Adonijah, and we get a glimpse of why he was rebellious. It just says this. And his father had not rebuked him at any time by saying to him, why have you done this? David was a successful king, but he was a failure as a father. He did not rebuke his sons. He did not warn his children. And God has placed us as parents into our children's lives with that very role, to warn them, to discipline, not simply to punish them, but to correctively encourage them and to shepherd them toward the Lord. My family just got back one week ago yesterday from our oldest son's wedding. I know you're thinking, you are so young. How could you have a son get married? So we're kind of living in nostalgia and sentimentality and all of that. I think I see Hollywood tears in her eyes a little bit more than I've seen earlier, maybe if I admit it myself. And anyways, this is kind of where we are. And so we have four children ages 13, 16, 18, and 20. And as we think about parenting, as we think about our son now married, leaving father and mother, being joined to his wife, becoming one flesh, these are things that we tried to do and yet failed a lot. Had to ask forgiveness a lot. Didn't always obey God in these things, but by God's grace, we were able to do many of these things, and so thankful for that, and by God's grace, our son who's now married is walking with the Lord, and is married to a young lady who also loves the Lord, and we couldn't be more grateful for that answer to prayer. And so let's ask God to help us. We are gonna fall short over and over again, but we have the Holy Spirit. We can see our children live for God, but by his grace. But we should do all we can to create that environment that they would grow and thrive and be what God wants them to be. So let's close in prayer.