A Cotton Mather Inspired Question {contest!}

I was thumbing through Cotton Mather’s A Family Well Ordered and I came across this:

Parents, with a sweet authority over your children, rebuke them for and restrain them from everything that may prove prejudicial to their salvation.

The charge to restrain them from “everything that may prove prejudicial to their salvation” is pretty loose.  My question to you is: What are we as Christians failing to restrain our children from that we ought to be?  Is it public schools? Home schools? Irrelevant preaching? An anemic gospel?

Let me know in the comment section below.  I’ll choose one commenter at random to win a copy of Mather’s book on Friday.


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2010
08/12
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4 comments
  • Anonymous

    In the first place, we restrain them from our own sin by repenting. The sin of the world is nothing by way of effect in comparison to that of the parents. Repentance not only shields them from our sin but also SHOWS them how to repent.

  • http://jonspach.com Jason Anspach

    I believe Mather has a whole section on that. You’re right that it is of primary importance. Does the church as a whole know how to repent, I wonder?

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  • kristal

    …I am ‘stuck’ on “with a sweet authority…” (gotta work on that ;)

  • http://jonspach.com Jason Anspach

    I would not have suspected that.