How to Teach Your Child to Resist Temptation

A trip to the SeaTac Airport afforded a wonderful opportunity to share lessons in the danger of your hand or eye offending you.

The Sermon on the Mount was being taught in Bible class. Discussion surrounded the danger of ignoring or overlooking the skandalizoo, the foot of the trap where the bait is set.

Each child was instructed to watch the eyes of men as a woman in a low cut neck line or a high cut hem line walked by them. They were asked to pay close attention to the men’s eyes as a woman with tight designer jeans walked passed.

The topic at lunch that day was, “What did you see?”

Red faces blushed at the very question.

Silence followed.

“What did you see,” I asked again. The lesson was clear. They grasped the concept and the significance of godly men making a covenant with their eyes and godly women honoring their body as the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Developing godly character and strong spiritual formation aids in the combat against peer pressure. Children must be trained in practical ways to respond when temptation arises and their peers are pressuring to participate in ungodly activity. Fear of the Lord must be alive and vibrant assuring them God sees.

Love for God and His ways must be motivating them to please Him more than they want to please their friends and their peers. Skill in making quality decisions based upon the wisdom of God should be carefully cultivated early in elementary and middle school years so they have the ability to make those decisions in high school and college. Right application of the precepts and the principles of God’s Word are developed as they see the concepts pointed out in all walks of life.

Most Christian curriculum does not address these critical issues. It must be developed and applied by the parents. It must be applied to each child as they grow in character and develop in spiritual formation according to their unique bent.

That is the strength and power of home education when it is carried out well.

We are blessed to have all three of our children and their life partners walking mighty in Spirit. They are in full time Christian ministry and raising their children to be godly and mighty in Spirit in their generation.

Truly, the Lord is great and greatly to be praised!

Dr. F. Dean Hackett has served in full time Christian ministry since October 1971. He has ministered throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, serving as pastor, conference speaker and mentor. He has planted four churches, assisted in planting fifteen others, and currently serves as Lead Pastor of Living Faith Church in Hermiston, Oregon. Dean has been married forty-five years to his wife, Wanda. They have three children serving in full time Christian ministry. Their two daughters are missionaries in Croatia and their son is planting a church in Portland, Oregon. They have nine grandchildren. Dr. Dean is known for training many leaders who are presently in full time ministry around the world. He has completed a Masters in Ministry, a Masters of Theology and a Ph.D. in practical theological with an emphasis in marriage and family counseling. His enthusiastic and challenging ministry has made him a popular teacher and conference speaker. He has written eight books and is presently writing the third book in a trilogy Freedom Series. Dr. Hackett founded Spirit Life Ministries International in 2001 to facilitate ministries in Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina and to open a training center for workers in those nations. You can find him at F. Dean Hackett – Foundational, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest