Rick Phillips offers Christian parents four commitments to remember in building a strong discipling relationship with their children:  Read – Pray – Work – Play.

1. Parents (especially fathers) must read God’s Word to and with their children. Countless Christians raised in strong believing homes will remember the influence of their father’s fervent and faithful ministry of reading (plus explaining and discussing) the Scriptures. Paul states that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17).
2. Parents must pray for and with their children. How it warms a child’s heart to know that his or her parents are fervently praying on his behalf. Parents should have regular times of prayer with the children and should frequently pray individually with their children.
3. Parents should work with their children. This means that parents should be involved in the children’s work – mainly schoolwork – both to help and guide them. But it also means that we should invite our children into our work. Shared work builds relationships … Families should also engage in works of Christian service together.
4. Parents should play with their children. This involves our participation in their play and our invitation for them to join in our play … Parents should share their passions with their boys and girls and invite them into the fun of hobbies and pastimes. All of this play has a very serious purpose: the bonding of hearts in loving relationship through joyful, shared experiences.

“My child, give me your heart,” says the Bible. This assumes, of course, that the parent has already given his or her heart to the child. This will always take the form of time: serious time and play time, time in worship and time in service together. If we will give our hearts to our children, we will find their hearts eagerly offered back to us, so that we may then lead them into the reality of our faith in Christ.