How to Teach Children Responsibility in the Bible
"Teach your children right from wrong, and when they are grown they will still do right," according to the Book of Proverbs. If you're trying to teach your children responsibility, there are plenty of lessons in the Bible to lend you support; the Bible consistently stresses the need for each person to take responsibility for his relationship with God and others. Read your child one of the many proverbs or stories in the Bible that emphasize the need to take responsibility. Jesus often used stories to illustrate his point.
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Teach your child responsibility toward God. Christianity teaches the most important responsibility is to repent our sins and be reconciled to God through Christ. Jesus taught that trusting children do this much more readily than adults, and that no one can come to God unless he humbles himself and repents like a child: "...He called a little child to Himself and put him in the midst of them, and said, 'Truly I say to you, unless you repent and become like little children you can never enter the kingdom of heaven'" (Matthew 18: 2-3, Amplified).
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Read your children a story from the Bible that tells how a boy shouldered responsibility well. The story beginning in Genesis 37 tells of Joseph, who, though he became a slave in Egypt and was later thrown into prison through no fault of his own, nevertheless determined to do his best in whatever situation he found himself. Ultimately, Joseph rose to a position of extraordinary authority in the Egyptian government, in part because he shouldered responsibility even when it would have been easy to stop trying.
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Read to your children from the book of Esther. Esther was a young Jewish woman living in Persia. Because Esther was extremely beautiful, the king took her to be his wife, but he had no idea that Esther was Jewish. After a while, one of the king's officials persuaded him that the Jews were a source of trouble, and the king issued an order allowing Jews to be killed. Esther could easily have remained silent, since no one knew that she, too, was Jewish. Instead, she took on the responsibility -- and the risk -- of confessing her ethnicity and pleading for the lives of her people. The king's order was reversed.
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Acquaint your children with the story of the Apostle Paul. Paul was a man who had sacrificed everything to be a follower of Jesus. His family, his former beliefs and any standing he had in the community were lost when he declared his faith in Jesus. He travelled great distances at his own expense, telling others about Christ, and often suffered beatings, imprisonment and even death threats as a result. Even though he had a right to expect some financial help from the Christians he served, he often refused it, working as a tent maker to illustrate to them how each Christian should take responsibility for meeting his own financial needs.
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