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his memory is increasingly selective, but his love for God remains undiminished. His determination to faithfully serve his Lord remains strong. He enjoys spending daily time with God more now than ever before. His example has been the determinative influence in each of his children’s lives. If you know our father, you will recognize his influence throughout the following pages. But before we delve into those truths, we need to tell you a little about our own homes.
    Questions for Reflection/Discussion
    1. Could you discern God’s activity in your home as you were growing up? If you could, what kinds of things did God do in your childhood home?
    2. What did you learn about God by watching your parents?
    3. What place did the church have in your childhood home?
    4. Are you more focused on your career or on raising your children right now? Are there any adjustments God wants you to make?
    5. How might God want to use your family for His purposes in the future?
    6. How will your children look back on their time growing up in your home?
    Notes
    1. At Blackaby Ministries International we have literally hundreds of cassette tapes of Henry Blackaby sermons that were recorded at Faith Baptist Church beginning in the 1970s that are being formatted into MP3 files for downloading. You can access them from our Web site at www.blackaby.net.

Chapter 4
    Richard’s Family: A Study in Contrasts
    I have always believed that the key to successful parenting hinged not so much on the process but on the product . That is, parenting is not about establishing the right rules and setting the most reasonable curfews. It centers on doing whatever is required to end up with children who honor God and you. If you are looking for a list of “Ten Sure-Fire Ways to Raise Great Kids,” you may be disappointed after reading this book. That’s because, though the Bible offers good advice on rearing children, much of parenting must be customized to the particular family. Families are unique. They consist of individuals and particular circumstances. Consequently, parents must seek God’s wisdom to know what is best for their situation. At least, that’s what Lisa and I discovered.
    Our Marriage
    Lisa and I have been married for thirty years. It hasn’t been easy! If she had grown up on the North Pole and I in Antarctica, we could not have been more polar opposite. My family put the “B” in Baptist! We can trace Baptists back in our family tree all the way to John! OK, well, not really. But there are Baptist ministers and missionaries generously sprinkled throughout numerous generations preceding mine. My father was a Baptist minister. His father was a bank manager, but he planted Baptist churches. My great grandfather was a student at Spurgeon’s College in London under Charles Spurgeon. In fact, family legend has it that one wayward relative began to indulge liberally in alcohol and died suddenly at a premature age. Everyone speculated that having descended from generations of tee-totalling Baptists, this man’s genetic constitution made him unable to handle the “imbibing” he was doing, and the alcohol killed him! (Of course, that’s just a rumor.) Even my mother’s parents were Baptist missionaries in Africa. It is quite clear that much of what I experienced in life was passed down from generations of God-fearing, church-leading ancestors.
    Lisa’s family, on the other hand, were devout Catholics. When Lisa’s father died, five priests officiated at the funeral. Two of my wife’s aunts were nuns. In fact, when Lisa was growing up, her family predicted she would become a nun herself (a prophesy I will forever be grateful proved false).
    I spent my early childhood growing up in San Francisco and Los Angeles. I have lived in cities all my life. Lisa grew up in the agricultural town of Carrot River, Canada. Its population of a thousand people boasted more grain elevators per capita than any other town in the province. Lisa grew up in the