Building Conscience in Your Family

The word conscience isn’t a word we hear much about these days. That’s a shame, because a conscience toward God is the glue that holds a family together.

When a family loses their conscience toward God, they lose everything. There is no longer any moral restraint to hold them together.

A man without a conscience toward God has nothing to prohibit immoral behavior or cause him to make sacrifices for his wife and family, because he is only accountable to himself.

A woman with no conscience toward God will do what she pleases when she pleases. She makes her own rules with no accountability.

Children with no conscience toward God are drawn to chaos and rebellion. Outer controls are insufficient because there is no inner sense of responsibility to restrain them.

That’s why I believe one of the most critical duties of parents is to instill in their kids a conscience toward God, and to do it at an early age. The primary way we do this is by teaching the Word of God.

From the time our children are young, we need to read them the Bible and explain it to them. As we do, we illustrate for them the difference between good and evil. We teach them that lying is wrong, stealing is wrong, rebellion is wrong, and the Bible is true.

When we open God’s Word in our homes, it comes into our children’s lives and builds a bridge for the Holy Spirit to begin communicating within their hearts. The Holy Spirit convicts them of right and wrong and revels God’s presence to them.

These are the first steps in the transference of our faith and conviction, as parents, to the next generation.

Another way we build a conscience toward God in our families is by praying about what we do. Whey our kids were growing up, they used to come home many times and try to sway Karen and me in our decisions—especially the ones related to them. They would say (of course), “Everyone else is doing it!”

This gave us the opportunity to tell them that our decisions were not based upon what our “everyone” was already doing, but on God’s Word and prayer. We trained them to be sensitive to the fact that we owe allegiance to God above any person.

This also taught them that prayer could be a daily response to the practical issues of their lives. When faced with a decision, we pray. We wait for God’s direction. Then we walk through the doors God opens for us.

When we do these things, we will be in His perfect will—making good choices, being obedient, and enjoying the blessings of a rich, abundant life.

“I set before you life and death, blessing and cursing…” (Deut. 30:19).

Where does this life and blessing come from? It comes from a conscience bent toward God. It comes from doing what Jesus says.

He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. If we look to Him for guidance in our decision-making, He will never lead us to a place of death and cursing.