Parents’ Day is celebrated annually on the fourth Sunday of July, making this year’s observance July 27, 2025. Established by a congressional resolution signed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, it was created to recognize, uplift, and support the role of parents in raising children. Unlike Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, Parents’ Day honors the partnership of parenting itself—the shared calling to nurture, guide, and shape the next generation.
When my children were young, I brought them up in church. They attended a Christian school, played instruments, participated in sports, and lived what appeared to be an idyllic childhood. But the most important ingredient was missing—a mother’s passionate, personal love for God. I played the Christian—attending church, tithing, and singing in the choir. But hypocrisy is a rotting foundation, and eventually, it broke me from the inside out.
And I failed at the most critical truth about parenting:
You don’t teach what you don’t live.
Ironically, I had known this truth since my youth. In Judaism, it is called the Shema—arguably the most important passage in Scripture on how to successfully raise children:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 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.” Deuteronomy 6:4–7
God makes it beautifully simple. He must be the center of our lives—our greatest passion, the most frequent topic of our conversation, and the absolute defining love of our lives. The fruit of His Spirit must dominate our homes. Our children are watching, and they will learn to love what we love.
Parenting is discipleship, but the question is: Whom are we making them disciples of?
Parenting and discipleship are the same calling. Jesus said, “Go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19). A disciple is someone who follows, imitates, and reproduces the life of their teacher. Is that not precisely what a child does with a parent?
The beautiful difference in Christian discipleship—whether in the home or in the broader family of faith—is that it does not have to be forced. When we are living in a genuine relationship with God the Father, the overflow is natural. It flows from a born-again soul and spirit that are constantly being renewed and refreshed by the fruit of His Spirit. We cannot manufacture it. We carry it—the way a vessel carries living water—and it spills into every life around us.
A child raised in that atmosphere does not merely learn about God; they encounter Him through us.
When God is our center, we trust like a child and lead like a parent.
When we are truly trusting the Lord with all our hearts—“lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5)—something remarkable happens. We simultaneously model two things at once: the humble, open-handed trust of a child resting in the Father’s care and the steady, anchored faith that our own children desperately need to see. Our surrender to God becomes their invitation. Solomon wrote:
“The righteous man walks in his integrity; his children are blessed after him.”—Proverbs 20:7
Our integrity is not just our own personal holiness—it is a shelter for our children. Our love for God is the inheritance we leave behind.
Whether you are raising children in your home, mentoring a younger believer, leading a small group, or simply living your faith in plain view of others, you are parenting someone. The question is never whether we will influence those around us. The question is: Whom are we influencing them to become?
No program, curriculum, or church event can replace the power of a life genuinely and passionately surrendered to God. Children know what we love most—and they will learn to love what we love.
Who better to teach our children to love God than those of us whom He first loved?
To teach it, we must live it. And the glorious grace of God is this: He is not asking for perfection. He is asking for authenticity—a heart that is truly His, a life that honestly points to Him, and a home where His peace, love, and joy are not just discussed but are present.
A life that loves God with all one’s heart, soul, and mind is the best gift a parent can give his or her children.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, on this Parents’ Day, we come before You with grateful hearts — grateful that You are the perfect Parent and that we are Your beloved children. Forgive us for the times we have loved other things more than You. Renew in us a passionate, authentic love for You—one that cannot be contained and one that spills naturally into the lives of those watching us. Let our homes be filled with Your presence, our conversations seasoned with Your Word, and our lives overflowing with the unmistakable fruit of Your Spirit. May every child, every student, and every soul in our sphere of influence encounter You through us—not because we are perfect, but because we are genuinely, wholly Yours. In the precious name of Jesus, Amen.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” Deuteronomy 6:5
